Asking The Right Questions
by m klindt
Summary: A new Section Two agent starts off on shake ground with Waverly as she ties to find her place during a mission.  Part of My "Lexi" stories
1. Chapter 1

**Asking the Right Questions**

**By M. Klindt**

**I don't own these characters in MFU and like them to play with the one's I created. This is part of my "Lexi" series. Thanks for reading.**

**Chapter One**

**Napoleon Solo walked into his office after a long debriefing with Mr. Waverly. He was just getting back in time for a quick lunch before he and Illya Kuryakin had to get the evaluations of junior agents' performances from the trainers to the boss man. Especially for one person in particular, Monica Alexis Lane formally Alexana Kuryakin, Illya's first partner while in the Soviet Union. He placed his folders on the desk and started to turn back out of his office when someone standing in his doorway abruptly stopped him.**

** "April," he said in mild surprise. "I didn't hear you come in. I was just about to go grab something to eat with Illya. Care to join us?"**

"**Sure." April Dancer said not to be distracted from her obvious mission to dig up information. "But, I want to know something first."**

"**What?" Napoleon asked. He could tell that she was in one of her moods.**

"**I want to know more about this Monica Lane person," She said flatly with a little air of jealously about her. "All I heard from Mark was how lovely she was and that she might be working in Section Two, but mostly in the labs; bi-sectional like Illya. Then, I see a new person in the gym working out with one of the trainers. She didn't look all that special to me. She's kind of short. I doubt that she would come up to my shoulder."**

"**Did you talk to her?" Solo asked with a purposely blank expression his face. He watched her animated hands barely pass her mid-section as she overly exaggerated how short Lexi was.**

"**I'd gone to the locker room to clean up. It's then I noticed her injuries as she got dressed after taking a shower. I was so shocked! Oh, they're nearly gone, but what has happened to her?" **

** "Well****" Solo didn't know what to say. How's he going to explain how Lexi came to join UNCLE without giving up her true identity? Mark and April were close enough friends with him and Illya that maybe they should know, but he'd promise not to tell anyone about her connection with Illya or where she really came from. They hadn't discussed what they should tell people.**

"**Well, what?" April asked in her usual demanding tone; eyes narrowing down on him, bright red hair pushed off her shoulders, and hands on hips. She was beautiful.**

"**I think that Monica should tell you herself." Napoleon said, hoping to satisfy April's curiosity for the moment and to save him from telling what he knew. "Let's grab her and Mark so we all can eat together."**

"**Fine," She huffed, not too happy that she couldn't get the scoop first hand from him. Napoleon indicated that she should lead the way.**

**Monica Lane wasn't in her lab, but up in the offices passing out sandwiches to the secretaries and office workers. She was almost done when Napoleon and April showed up.**

"**Hi, Mr. Solo and Miss Dancer, would you two like a sandwich? There's plenty." Lexi said, holding a basket out to them. Each was neatly wrapped and labeled to what kind of sandwich it was. "There are drinks and chips over there."**

"**Getting to know the locals?" he asked and thought it was a smart move on Lexi's part to treat the office to lunch.**

"**Always," Lexi said easily setting the basket down by the chips and drinks and then walked back to where they stood. "Feed people and they will do anything for you. Miss Dancer, sorry I didn't get a chance to talk with you this morning. It's nice to finally meet you, the first woman in Section Two here in New York."**

**She turned toward April and extended her hand.**

"**Call me April," she said with the sweetest smile painted on her face and they formally shook hands. **

"**Lexi, it's from my middle name Alexis."**

"**We were going to ask if you'd like to have lunch with April and me. Mark and Illya are waiting in the commissary." Solo gave her a knowing look that there was something to discuss.**

"**Oh, sure****"Lexi said with a hint of uncertainty. "Let me grab a sandwich and I'll be right with you."**

**Nothing was said among the three agents while they walked to the commissary. They met up with Illya and Mark and some pleasantries were exchanged. Lexi's mood changed from bright and sunny to tensely stoic as if she was going to face a firing squad when everyone sat down at a table. Illya fixed a quick glance at Lexi and then at April, but hid his concern as he pretended to look as his watch.**

"**Well," Napoleon cleared his throat as if to say it wasn't his fault to both of them. "April wanted to meet Lexi and since she'd already met Mark, April thought it would be nice to get to know her better by having lunch. A welcome to UNCLE and Section Two sort of thing…"**

"**I'm flattered that you want to get to know me, April, but I'm more inclined to think it's because you saw me dress after my shower and wondered how I was injured. I saw your reaction in the mirror"**

"**Yes, I'm concerned." April said in embarrassment. "I should've asked you then, you see, I'm a bit nosey and thought Napoleon would tell me more. I am sorry that I couldn't have met you sooner to ask you first…"**

"**If that is all, you wanted to know." Lexi said stiffly and rose to stand up; putting her hand up to prevent the men from standing up as a formality. "It was in a car accident. Now, if you'll excuse me. I'm going to take my sandwich and go back to my lab. I didn't realize the time and I've got to meet with Dr. Thompson if he's done with his meeting so Mr. Solo and Mr. Kuryakin can get their assessment of my skills from the various instructors. Please, excuse me..."**

**The rest watched in awe as she left, not quite in an angry manner, but with a stiff formality that wasn't easily breached. Illya quietly smirked and then let his face go blank. That was the Lexi he knew.**

"**Well, I said I was sorry." April said angrily to the group of men around her after Lexi had left. "Of all the nerve..."**

"**Luv, I do believe that she just challenged you," Mark said simply.**

"**What?" she looked at him in astonishment.**

"**Yes." Illya interjected, darkly smiling at her. "I do believe you're right, Mark."**

"**Challenged me to what exactly?" April said in utter confusion.**

"**To see who is going to become top female dog in this little pack, to put it in a less than graphic way." Mark stated as he backed away slightly from April, knowing her temper and striking range.**

"**What!"**

"**Now, April," Napoleon tried to calm her down. "I don't think that is what's going on****"**

"**Well if she thinks that I'm going to let her get away with that then she has another thing coming." April said as she crossed her arms across her chest in a resounding huff as she leaned back in the chair. "I'll give her a cat fight if she wants one."**

"**April," Napoleon said smoothly, starting again with reassurance to her as he looked over to Illya and Mark, silently thanking them for their part in all of this. "I cannot condone this kind of attitude among agents. Go talk to her privately and see if all of this can be resolve or take it to the gym."**

"**Don't worry, Napoleon, I will." She got up to leave. "I'm going to my office to do some paperwork, are you coming Mark?"**

**Mark nodded in sad resignation and got up to follow her. So much for lunch, his thoughts broadcasted in his actions.**

"**Hey, where did Lexi get that sandwich?" He asked suddenly remembering what she had in her hand.**

"**Mark!" April sighed, put her hands on her hips, and motioned him to follow her back to their office right now. He shrugged, but still trotted after her.**

"**Well, this is going to be fun." Napoleon said sourly in resignation to the potential problems with Section Two is going to have now that Lexi had joined their small group. "You're a lot of help, partner"**

"**I don't think that it was fair that April and you put her on the spot. April deserved to get shut down and will have to be content that she's no longer the only female Section Two agent." Illya commented and leaned in real close to Napoleon. "Waverly wanted it not Lexi. She knows that she'll have to prove herself, but remember, she is used to the respect she's had as a high-ranking officer. Your rank actually, Napoleon. How would you handle starting all over and having to prove yourself in a new place and in Section Two?"**

"**I would stand up to the biggest obstacle in my way to establish my own place in UNCLE." He said thoughtfully. "This would be another female agent if I was Lexi and that would mean April."**

"**Exactly," Illya agreed. "She doesn't want to replace her, but be her equal. I haven't known Lexi to have many close female friends. The ones I have even heard of are just comrades that were held at arms' length. April is like that as well in this male dominated spy world."**

"**Is there anyone she trusts completely?" Napoleon seriously asked.**

"**I don't think that she totally trusts herself some of the time. Even I'm not allowed in all the time. She's a very intriguing person to try to know…"**

"**I have the feeling that she would say the same about you," he said thoughtfully, thinking the way Illya had stated his last thought. Almost like a scientist talking about an experimental subject. Then he looked at his watch. "We'd better hurry and get back to Mr. Waverly office for the meeting." **

"**What about lunch?" Illya asked as he stood up.**

"**We'll grab a sandwich in the offices. Lexi brought lunch for the office staff and if we hurry..."**

"**She brought lunch for the whole office… wow! How come you didn't tell me? I could've had at least two sandwiches."**

"**Is food all you think about?" Napoleon shook his head as he put his hands in his pockets as they walked down the hallway.**

"**Yes. When Lexi is buying that is. She always gets the best quality of food. She loaded, you know." Illya smiled as he hurried passed him to Waverly's office to look for a sandwich or two.**

"**Loaded?" Napoleon repeated as he stopped in his tracks. "Lexi, who in the hell are you?"**

"**Well, Gentleman." Mr. Waverly slowly puffed on his pipe as he listened to all of the evaluations of the Section Two agents except the newest one. "Let's hear about our newest acquisition, Miss Lane. As you know, she has previous experience in the field for Army Intelligence. Until there is an opening in Survival School, tell me what level of training she is at. Mr. Porter."**

"**Sir, Miss Lane is ninety-three percent accurate when shooting a gun with either hand, ninety-five percent with a rifle on her right shoulder, but only eighty percent on her left shoulder. I think that this level of skill with a firearm is acceptable for any agent when she explained her recent car accident had fractured her left collarbone and arm. I believe that her use of a rifle will improve on the left side given enough time for her bones to completely heal. I'm impressed with the accuracy of how Miss Lane can throw a knife with both hands as well. I'd rate that about ninety-five percent. She's equal to an agent that has just passed survival school training."**

"**Thank you, Mr. Porter. Mr. Cummings, you're next." Waverly said introspectively as he relit his pipe.**

"**Yes, sir," Mr. Cummings sat up in his chair. "Miss Lane is knowledgeable in many forms of hand-to-hand combat. She comes to us in excellent physical condition due to continual strength and endurance training. Even though her stated injuries from a car accident that happened a few weeks ago, they're relatively healed. She's able to show some of her skills in a gymnastics including simple tumbling and limited upper arm strength. She does wear a unique brace that wrapped around her left arm to protect it. My suggestion for her is to increase her training time with one-to-one combat. I believe that she is motivated enough to stay in field required shape without extra encouragement. I would place her like Porter and in ranking her past survival school level of fitness and self defense."**

"**Yes," Waverly said with another puff. "Dr. Allen?"**

"**Mr. Waverly, all the blood tests drawn yesterday were within normal levels. I did a basic exam right before lunch and all checked out. I had Miss Lane list all scars, broken bones and surgeries to complete her file. We did discuss what injuries she had suffered from the car accident and the level of healing is acceptable. She's in good physical shape and approved for full field work in a month." With that statement, Dr. Allen gave Waverly an understanding look that he had more information than the rest of the others about his new, handpicked recruit.**

"**Dr. Samuel, is she approved for field work?" Waverly asked the final assessor in the room. **

"**With the short talk I had with her." Samuel paused. "Miss Lane's personality is smooth as glass and is very capable of using all her skills to draw you in without telling saying much. She's a Master's in Behavioral Sciences and a PhD in Chemistry that makes her almost as qualified as I am to do my job, but I sense trust issues going on. It could be from leaving from her previous job or trauma, but I need more time to get to know her as I do with all the agents."**

**Kuryakin felt a sudden chill as Samuel looked right at him with that last comment, but didn't look up from the table. Illya was one of his targets to "get to know better", especially after he would get tortured during a mission and was required to go through Psychological treatment. This special attention was not what he thought as always necessary, but if he wanted to go into the field he had to follow Samuel's list of requirements.**

"**Dr. Samuel, we are not here to talk about Mr. Kuryakin." Mr. Waverly noticed the look that he had given the agent. "I want to know if Miss Lane is field ready."**

"**Yes." Dr. Samuel cleared his throat in embarrassment for staring at Kuryakin so intently. "I would consider her field ready."**

"**Thank you, gentlemen, for your assistance. I'll expect written reports in the morning." Waverly dismissed the men and flipped a switch to call his secretary. "Miss McNabb, I want to see Doctors Thompson and Lane."**

"**Yes, sir."**

**Just as the room had cleared, Thompson and Lane came into Mr. Waverly's office. Waverly had his back to them as he sat at his personal desk. Both of them had stood quietly as they waited for him to turn around.**

"**Sit down, Dr. Thompson and Miss Lane. I'll be with you in a moment."**

"**Yes, Sir," they both said as they sat down and looked around the room as they waited. The sun was shining through the window, filtering the smoke from Waverly's pipe that hung in the air around the room. **

**Lexi didn't like the smell of pipe tobacco Waverly used. It was the same kind that the late General Boris Kuryakin, her adoptive father, used to smoke and it brought back unpleasant memories. She began to slightly shake as she tried to quell the images that clouded her mind, screaming to come out.**

"**Miss Lane?" Mr. Waverly repeated, this time a little more firmly. **

"**Sir?" Lane turned to Waverly in a haze that cleared quickly. "Sorry, sir."**

"**Is there something wrong?" He asked quietly with a raise of his bushy eyebrows.**

"**No, sir. I just let my mind roam too much while I was waiting. Sorry sir, it will not happen again. The smoke in here is little strong for me. I will learn to get used to it."**

"**Yes." Waverly slowly agreed and then went on, but now without a look of concern. "What I was saying is that you've been approved for limited field work by our trainers for your first month with us then its full duty, well done. We'll fit you with the usual required agent gadgets and communicating pen. You'll work with Dr. Thompson in the lab when not assigned."**

"**Dr. Thompson, have you and Miss Lane a plan to work on her formulas?"**

"**Miss Lane's formulas, sir?"**

"**Mr. Waverly" Lane spoke up using her native Russian accent while speaking in English. "Dr. Thompson doesn't know yet. I was going to tell him before this meeting, but he wasn't available. I would think that this is a good time as any to tell him. I've some suggestions that might be useful to Section Eight for my lab when I'm not assigned to Section Two…"**

"**Your plans, Lexi, I thought I was in charge," Waverly said as he kept his piercing gaze on her. He purposing used her nickname as a hint for Thompson to catch as he flicked a glance at him before returning his full attention on Miss Lane.**

"**What! Did you just call her Lexi? Wait a minute." Thompson looked from Waverly to Lane as he rambled on. "A patient named Lexi left UNCLE Headquarters' medical ward that I worked with to identify a drug reaction a few weeks ago. I wasn't informed of her last name. Only that Mr. Kuryakin knew her. That was you! You created all those drugs and antidotes!"**

"**Sorry Dr. Thompson, but I decided to keep Miss Lane's new position here unknown to all and it's still on a "need to know basis." You had to know, because you'll be working the closest with her, now Monica Alexis Lane on her formulas."**

"**But! You had blue eyes, blond hair, and had a badly broken arm . . ."**

"**George, I have brown contacts in, this is my natural hair, and my arm mostly healed." Lexi said, smiled at his innocence as she put her hand on his arm and gave it a reassuring squeeze. "It'll be all right. I believe that we'll work well together and you can still call me Lexi."**

"**Holy cow!, if I knew that you were going to be working here, I wouldn't have spent the last three weeks pulling my hair out in how to breakdown your formulas. Each time I saw Illya, I would drill him on what he knew about your formulas and how they were made. I swear that he was going to clobber me sometimes****"**

"**George, I think that we can talk about my formulas later, we need to finish our meeting with Mr. Waverly first." Lane said as she picked up two of each of the file she had brought with her and passed a copy to Waverly and Thompson. "Here are the lists of drugs and their antidotes in my travel kit that was taken from my apartment. I've listed and charted their effects along with appropriate dosages when used in a dart gun or hypodermic injection. I also have described the potential for a prototype of an injection system that is refillable and would be hidden in common jewelry and a new formula that I need to test. It's a short acting hypnotic that starts to work in 10 seconds and clears in five, minutes."**

**Waverly nodded and picked through the file. He watched with amusement while Thompson devours this information, totally ignoring anything else going on in the room.**

"**Miss Lane, I do believe that you have already earned your salary for the month."**

"**That is not all that I want to talk to you about, Mr. Waverly." Lane said hesitantly. "Here is my personal file from my last evaluation from the KGB that I was able to "appropriate" before I left. I wanted you to have it. An offer of trust as if you will."**

**Waverly took her personal file and set down in front of him without opening it. He looked up at her and bit the end of his pipe, but didn't speak while he puffed.**

"**Some would say that I might have some trust issues..." Lane returned Waverly's stare with a deadly smile.**

"**I feel that all this is an offering for something you want from me."**

"**Nothing, which will cost you any money…"**

"**Well?"**

"**One of my associates, Janice Smyth, at Lane Pharmaceuticals was invited to participate in a research forum supported by the Rossel International Institute from Paris on alternative chemical compositions. It travels to all the top colleges throughout this country and Europe. I would like to go in her place. It will be here in New York for the next two weeks. The information would be vital to keep UNCLE current in its level of research in alternative medications used in Anesthetics to fluctuate the levels of muscle tone, amnesia, and analgesia."**

"**Oh! I have heard of the Rossel Research Forum." Dr. Thompson interjected. "Yes, very elite and by invitation only..." **

"**And if I need you in the field?" The eyebrows rose higher.**

"**I would come back right away." She said evenly with a genuine promise. "The conference meets for eight hours. I'll come to UNCLE for training and plan to work in the lab in the evenings to make up for my absences."**

"**The cost of this forum?"**

"**Nothing to UNCLE, but my attendance to the forum; my company will absorb the costs."**

"**Does your file include all the things that you are involved in Miss Lane? I do not want your time divided. I require one hundred percent of your attention and participation."**

"**Yes and no. I'm hoping for some flexibility." Lane placed her hands flatly on the table to prevent them from shaking as she felt her stomach start to sour from the smoke and the tone of Waverly's voice. "The KGB encourages infiltration into a corporation that would establish credibility. Over the years, I have developed a staff of top people to run Roth Industries that was owned by my mother's father and I inherited. Lane Pharmaceutical is a new business within the blanket of companies. I get progress notes from the CEO once a month, but that's all. I'm listed as a chemist, nothing more. It was that chemist who got invited to the forum****"**

**Lexi finished the last two sentences now in a slight South Boston accent and continued speaking with it. **

"**What happens to all of it if you don't return from a mission?"**

"**Same as before when I was with the Soviet Government. If the CEO doesn't hear from me in three month's time, the boards of regents take over and my will is activated. I am no more."**

"**I see." Waverly said slowly through puffs of his pipe. "I am not willing to be flexible, but I'm not going to lose you from our labs and Section Two either. I'll put you on probation for six months. If there are obvious discrepancies, we will have to evaluate our relationship at that time. Since you're on limited duty during the time of the forum, you can go unless I call for you and you will check into UNCLE Headquarters every day. Is this understood?"**

"**Yes, sir," Lane smiled with relief. "Thank you, Mr. Waverly. I won't let you down."**

"**I expect a lot from my agents, Miss Lane. Now, take Dr. Thompson with you and go back to your lab. Show him your formulas and I want a report on my desk in the morning along with the daily schedule for the forum. Now on your way, the both of you."**

**Lane and Thompson stood up, gave Waverly a curt nod, and walked out of his office.**

**Just as they felt the door to Waverly's office close, Lexi took a hold of George's arm and drew him close to her so only he could hear what she said.**

"**George, no one must know or even guess about Illya and me. It's complicated and I don't want people to know that we were****acquaintances in the Soviet Union. It could affect our work within UNCLE. The person I was then is technically dead." Lexi had gone back to her Midwestern accent, as if she was done playing a game.**

"**But his help with our lab would be phenomenal. Especially with that prototype you propose."**

"**I didn't say he couldn't help us, in fact I don't think that we could keep him away. We just have to be discrete about certain things. Can I trust you, George?"**

"**It would be as if I was working for Section Two." Thompson smiled brightly. "I've always wanted to be part of a secret mission, but I just never had the opportunity until now."**

"**Well****" Lane smiled up at the tall man and tugged him to start walking toward the elevators with her arm still linked with his. "I do need a partner to help me tonight with some research. Have you ever been to the Playboy Club downtown?" **

"**No! What do you propose?" Thompson started to shake with anticipation.**

"**We need to get to the lab." **

**Solo had met his date at her apartment and gave her the choice of where to go for drinks before going to a Broadway musical. He wasn't surprised that she picked the Playboy Club. He had been a member since it first opened and its secret society fascinated a lot of his dates that worked at UNCLE.**

**After they had ordered drinks, Megan had to use the powder room. Napoleon used this opportunity to look around from his vantage point at the back of the room. It was busy for a Tuesday. Many of the women in the club were with their dates sitting at the tables. Only a few single women, who were elegantly dressed, sat at the bar with several groups of men standing around them attempting to try to pick a lovely lady to go home with.**

**Solo smiled, as he knew most of these ladies were higher paid call girls brought in by guests, but he did notice a certain woman that looked very familiar to him. **

**Her raven hair was swept up in a mass of curls on the top of her head with a few strands that fell to her shoulders. She wore silver beads around her neck that perfectly matched the beading in the bodice that coated the black, pewter satin of the dress, which hugged her slim body in all the right spots. Her ivory skin glowed as did her sapphire blue eyes, perky nose, and pink pouty lips. The stiletto shoes made him shiver as she crossed her legs, exposing just enough skin through the slit on the side of her dress.**

**The goddess was talking to a man and moved in close, talking into his ear as she stroked his hand and played with the front of his suit. The man was in a sexual daze. After a few moments of whispering sweet nothings, the man cleared his throat, paid for their drinks, and they walked out of the room hand in hand.**

**Napoleon, like most men in the room, watched this person walk out with her conquest with envy, wishing they were him. Solo sighed and then smiled his most charming smile as Megan returned to the table and he got up to greet her back.**

**Once the drinks had come, he looked past his glass to notice that this goddess had returned to her perch less than ten minutes later. She was talking to another gentleman.**

"**Ah, excuse me, Megan," Napoleon said smoothly. "I know that person at the bar. She's… my cousin. I should go say hello before we go. Do you mind?"**

"**Well, yes I do, but go do what you must. Just don't make us late for the show." She sighed.**

"**Thank you; I will make it up to you later, promise."**

**Solo weaved through the crowd to stand just behind the woman he labeled the goddess.**

"**Napoleon, I can smell your cologne anywhere!" She said without turning around, leaned toward the man seated next to her, and said something in his ear. He got up to leave, and then she patted the seat for Solo to join her as she picked up her drink and played with it by tapping her ring against it. **

**She turned to him and tried to put her hand on his, but instead he grabbed her wrist, turned it palm up and looked her straight in the eyes.**

"**Napoleon****"**

"**Lexi," The hand he held showed the backside of her ring with a very small hypodermic needle protruding from it that was dripping an unknown substance.**

"**It's just some research. Totally harmless, I swear on my father's life."**

"**General Boris Kuryakin is dead and so is your real one."**

"**I was just having a little fun****" She smiled as if she was talking to him the way she did with the other men she had met with tonight.**

"**Is Illya here with you?" **

"**Now you are sounding like a big brother." Lexi frowned as if she was going to be told to stop what she was doing and moved in closer to him. "I thought you're interested in something more****"**

"**Is he here?" He squeezed her wrist firmly.**

"**No, but George Thompson is. He's helping me gather reaction times to my new prototype drug and its delivery system." She didn't outwardly react to the increase pressure Napoleon was placing on her wrist bones. "Illya isn't interested sitting around, waiting for me while I try out one of my experiments."**

"**What would Mr. Waverly say about your research methods?"**

"**I do not think he cares as long as he gets results. I'm being safe and giving George something to do. Look over at him. He loves the thrill of being at the Playboy Club, having the bunnies talk to him, and playing a simple spy game with me. I'm not hurting anyone, really."**

**Solo looked over towards Thompson, who was looking like a kid at a carnival and he chuckled as he turned back to Lexi.**

"**Don't get him or you into trouble." Solo said with a warning. "I am telling you to go home now, before things get too risky."**

"**I want one more." Lexi said quietly. "I would've been done by now if you hadn't come over here. Besides, George has to get back to his wife by eight. You'd better go back to your unhappy date. She's about leave without you."**

"**This isn't over." Solo shot back as he stood up, straightened his suit, and walked back to his date who had been watching them all this time. **

**Before Solo could escort Megan out of the club, Lexi already had her last victim and she was signaling Thompson that she was ready to leave and he escorted her out of the club.**

"**Where's Lexi?" Solo said as he walked into Kuryakin's office the next morning.**

"**I don't know," This partner said calmly as he turned another page of the research proposal he was looking at. "Good morning to you. I'd offer some coffee, but the way you are acting, it appears that you do not need any."**

"**Do you know what she was doing last night?"**

"**The way you are standing there, I would hazard a guess, research. Which establishment was she at this time?" he turned another page, still not looking up.**

"**The Playboy Club. I had taken Megan from Accounting there for drinks and I saw her at the bar, attracting men like flies. She was going to use her drug on me when I went over to talk with her."**

"**I told you about her experiments." Illya smirked as he stifled a laugh and dipped lower in his chair as if prepared to duck a swing that he thought was coming. "I stay as far away from her research sessions as I possibly can."**

"**Don't you ever worry that she will get into trouble?" his thoughts turned more serious.**

"**Napoleon, do you think that what she does is any riskier than what we do in the field?" His friend straightened up as he finished his partner's train of thought. "If we worried about the dangers, none of us would be working where we do. Despite what you think, she plays it safer than we do. What she has achieved with her formulas will help us all. She goes a step further and field-tests them in real life situations. Not in a controlled lab where the variances are nonexistent. She wasn't thinking about being a Section Two agent when Waverly first offered a job."**

"**I suppose you're right." Napoleon said thoughtfully. "It'll take time to get use to having her around. She is not one of our usual newbies. Do you know where she is now? I've to get her outfitted on required equipment for Section Two fieldwork. Mr. Waverly wants her supplied before she goes to that Rossel Forum tomorrow."**

"**You might try the gym or her lab. I haven't seen or talked to her since yesterday at lunch." **

"**A lot of help you are." He shook his head at Illya as he gave him a silly look and left his office.**

"**But, I do know where she will be at lunch time." He said with a smile and continued to read the proposal.**

**April Dancer walked out of one of the dress shop changing rooms of Madame Rose Michelle's, trying on an elegant evening dress in emerald green satin covered in rhinestones and twirled around in front of the mirrors.**

"**It izz you, Madame. Just magnifique." The sales clerk simpered in a strong French accent, looking for a sale.**

"**Yes, I do like it." April said, examining herself as she pulled her hair up.**

"**I don't know if I like this color." Monica Lane came out of another changing room in a dress of rose satin and pearls with another sales clerk tagging behind. "Let me look at the dress in better light by the mirrors****"**

"**Oh, Lexi," April said as she turned around from her own reflection.**

"**April!" Lexi looked up as she realized that someone else was standing by the mirrors. "I didn't know you were here"**

"**Well, if you are here, you obviously know this is the best shop for designer gowns."**

"**Yes, it is." Lexi said coolly. "You know, April, the boys at work would love to have us at odds with each other, because I left so abruptly yesterday. I think that we should combine forces and play it for all it's worth. I do believe the term you used was catfight?"**

** "Yes." April first stiffened and then laughed out loud. "Mark and Illya did say something in the way of you and I needed to fight it out as to who was top female dog."**

"**They would, the bastards! How about equals?" **

**The both laughed and smiled.**

"**I do believe that is the beginning of a great friendship. No man is safe."**

"**Now that we have decided that, I have to tell you that dress doesn't fit you in the right spots. The bodice needs darts."**

"**I do believe that you are right." April looked back at herself again. "But if I agree with you on this dress, will you tell me more about yourself? Napoleon was hinting about something at lunch yesterday."**

"**Yes, but not here. How about at lunch after we find something worthy of our good taste? I can tell you the truth by that the way Napoleon and Illya trust you, but it has to be kept under wraps as much as possible."**

"**Now you have wetted my appetite even more. There's another dress I want to show you. Stay right there. I'll be back in a sec." April picked up the hem of the dress and ran into the dressing room. **

**Lexi crossed her arms and laughed, as she stood rooted to the spot. The door of the shop's bell rang out, but she didn't turn around to see who it was. She already knew. **

**Arms wrapped around her as she felt the familiar body encircle her. His breath felt warm in her ear as he whispered to her and she smiled. Lexi could hear the sales clerks snickering as one of them went into the back room.**

**Lexi told Illya something in their special language that only he could hear.**

"**A Surprise for me," he asked in English. "What?"**

"**Lexi, what you do think of this one?" **

**April rushed into the room and jerked to a stop to see Lexi still encircled by Illya's arms. As he tried to push himself away, Lexi grabbed him to keep him right where he was. April looked at the both of them in utter shock, not knowing what to say.**

"**April, this is part of the secret I was going to tell you about at lunch. Illya and I know each other****"**

"**Illya and Lexi." A lady with a tape measure around her neck and apron on came into the room waving a pair of silver shears. "It is good to see you two my darlings. It has been way too long. Anna told me, Illya, that you had just come into the shop. Out to save or ruin my business?**

"**Me ruin? Never!" **

**Rosemary was a petite woman with steaks of gray intermixed within her pitch black hair that made her brown eyes sparkle as she smiled at Illya and Lexi. Her lips curled up and her face brightened as if she knew a secret that not many people were aware of. She was graceful and timeless, just like her creations.**

"**Oh, dear, what has happened to your hair? It's much shorter than I'm used to seeing it on you, but come and give me a kiss anyway my dear boy."**

**Kuryakin let go of Lexi and quickly walked over the shop's owner out stretched arms, grasped her hands, and gave her a quick kiss on each cheek.**

"**It is good to see you, Rosemary. Your shop is still a great success. It has been quite awhile since we were in here, but I've seen your designs pop up in my travels more and more frequently. Do you know Miss April Dancer? She is another friend of mine."**

"**Not formally, but any friend of you two is always worth my special attention. April, welcome to my shop. I know that Illya will help me find you the right dress. He has a keen eye to what fits each woman. He picks outs Lexi's dresses all the time. If he should ever quit his day job, I would make him my partner in designing clothes. I would never have to work this hard again!"**

"**Illya, I had no idea!" April said unsteadily. "When do you find the time?"**

"**I usually don't." Illya blushed. "Lexi and I would meet once and a great while and then we would spend an afternoon here and there, going around New York finding places to shop for special items needed for our careers."**

"**We'd met Rosemary in Paris where she was an apprentice." Lexi continued. "I didn't know what to wear for my assignments at the Embassy and she would bring me into her back room. I would model for her, while she and Illya would discuss the mechanics of dressmaking. A lot of vodka was consumed; if I can recall anything at all from those gatherings."**

"**Just how long have you two known each other?" April looked at Illya, her eyes demanding and almost hurt at the same time. "Why did you keep it a secret from me and Mark? How long has Napoleon known?"**

"**About a month and a half ago. You and Mark were in Prague. I didn't tell anyone because I worked for UNCLE and Lexi worked for the KGB. We'll tell you the rest at lunch, but now we must find you two dresses and go eat. We need to get back to headquarters. Napoleon has been trying to find Lexi all morning and by now, I know he's fit to be tied."**

"**Why didn't you tell me?" Lexi huffed. "Oh, man. He's already acting like you. I told George what I was doing this morning after I came in early to work out. What does he want from me other than to lecture me about last night?"**

"**Last night?" April looked from Lexi to Illya.**

"**Maybe you needed it, but that is not why. He wants you to get your standard field equipment issued and in place before you go to the forum tomorrow. It's not a lot to ask of you to be more civil****" Illya glared back at her.**

"**What forum? What am I missing?" April asked.**

"**Fine!" Lexi spat out, ignoring April. "What do you think about this color?"**

"**It no good on you and you know that."**

"**I didn't think so, I have another one. Go help April while I go change into that one."**

**Lexi waved to one of the sales clerks to follow her; cursing under her breath at Illya in a language that only he could understand which made him smile as he turned to Rosemary and April.**

"**Now, April, turn around." Illya demanded as he put his dark rimmed glasses on and looked at her as if he was conducting an experiment. All April could do was to comply with the tone of his voice and curtness.**

"**You two never change." Rosemary shook her head in amusement and pulled out a notebook from her apron. "So Illya, now what is wrong with this dress?"**

"**Where do you want me to begin?"**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

**Two men were leaning against a car across the street from Madame Rose Michelle's dress shop smoking. They were watching for their mark to leave the shop. Their boss, Mr. Davis assigned them to watch a chemist named Janice Smyth. Many junior THRUSH agents were given the task to tail each scientist invited to the Rossel Forum to gather information vital into picking out just the right ones to be invite them into their organization, sometimes by force if necessary. They wanted to lower the risk of attracting unwanted attention.**

**They'd only just picked up Smyth's trail this morning as she had left Lane Pharmaceuticals after calling in to accept the prestigious invitation and an informational packet from a courier. **

**So far, they'd followed her to this the dress shop and now were waiting for her to come out. They needed to get more photographs of the young, pretty scientist and find out where she lived. Until now, they had only her car's license plate and a fuzzy photo of her taking the package from the delivery guy.**

"**Hey Joe," Mack said to the other THRUSH agent, straightening up from his slouch. "Did you see who just went into that girlie shop?"**

"**I see it, but I don't believe it." The other man agreed in amazement.**

"**Illya Kuryakin, One the UNCLE's finest as I live and breathe…"**

"**Do you think he knows our pigeon?"**

"**I don't know. We'd better keep a closer eye on this one. Davis is going to be mighty interested about this."**

"**You ain't a kiddin.'"**

**After about another half an hour, Illya Kuryakin and April Dancer came out of the dress shop carrying Dancer's dress box under his arm and they got into her car. A few moments later, out came Monica Lane. She had her dress and a box in her arms as she walked to her car, awkwardly unlocked it, and got in.**

"**Well, that was a close one. Old Kuryakin was there with that pretty female UNCLE agent, what's her name?" **

"**April Dancer, I do believe."**

"**Yes, I don't want to have to deal with him and her at the same time if I canna help it, if ya knows what I mean. Let's get in the car before we lose our prey the traffic. Davis will have our hide if we've lost her already."**

"**Righto, Mack. We'll tell him what we saw when we report in."**

"**Chem. lab, Thompson, here."**

"**Reynolds, its Janice Smyth. Is the boss there yet?"**

**Thompson could hear the noise of a large department store behind the voice of the same Boston accent that Lexi used the other day in Waverly's office.**

"**Lexi, is that you? Where are you? Mr. Solo's been at me to find you ever since you've left****"**

"**I've finished the trip to the dress shop for his wife, but can't remember what perfume she wanted. This is the last time I take my lunch hour to run his errands for him. Is there any way that you can find him for me?"**

"**I can try****wait! He just walked in. Napoleon, its Lexi, she's at some kind of store. She wants to talk to you."**

**Solo stopped in mid-step of charging into the room for the third time to berate the tall lab rat and grabbed the phone.**

"**I've been looking all over for you****" Solo tried to control the rising anger in his voice.**

"**Mr. Johnson. I can't remember what perfume you wanted for your wife."**

"**Where are you?" He snapped, even though he let her interrupt him**

"**I'm here at Macy's.**

"**What are you doing there?"**

"**I promise to get back to Lane Labs after that. I know that I'm late coming back from lunch, but I've been following all your directions to find the dress shop, but I forgot to write down the type of perfume to buy. It's busy in here; it will be hard to find a person to help me before I can leave."**

"**Got it, take your time and I'll meet you at Lane Pharmaceuticals. I'll be inside, just in case they know who I am. Stay safe."**

"**I understand, sir. I'll better next time. I won't dally."**

**Solo hung up the phone slowly as he turned to Thompson, tapping his index finger to his lips**

"**George, let me know if she calls again, before I have a chance to leave. I've got to tell Mr. Waverly what's going on and grab a few things to take with me."**

"**Napoleon, what is going on?"**

"**Lexi just told me she is being followed and can't tell if those following her knows that she is part of UNCLE or not. That's why she didn't come right back to headquarters. She's guessing that they tracked her from Lane Pharmaceuticals and not here. Smart girl****"**

"**Do you think it might be someone from last night?"**

"**I don't know George. Where did you go after you two left the club?"**

"**Nowhere, she dropped me off at a busy subway terminal and drove off. She didn't say where she was going. I assumed she went home. She didn't say we were being followed either."**

"**No, I don't think that she would have dropped you off if you two were being followed." Solo looked at his watch. "I have to get going. Do me a favor and stay in the lab until we return."**

"**Sure thing."**

"**Good man, George."**

"**Open channel D. Kuryakin to Mr. Waverly," A hesitate voice called over the open connection. **

"**Waverly here, report Mr. Kuryakin."**

"**Sir, has Miss Lane talked in with you?"**

"**No, why should she? She isn't missing already is she?"**

"**Well, she was to meet with Miss Dancer and me for lunch. We drove in separate cars to the restaurant and she didn't show up after more twenty minutes. I was wondering if she showed up at UNCLE headquarters instead. I called you when reception said she hadn't check in… "**

"**I'll have someone check on her whereabouts. In the meantime, I want you to come into headquarters immediately. Is that understood?"**

"**Yes, sir, right away, Kuryakin out."**

"**Miss McNabb, get me Mr. Solo." Waverly said gruffly as he opened his humidor to find it empty again. "Bother!"**

**The door to his office opened to let Napoleon in. He was carrying a bag of pipe tobacco and a small box of field agent required equipment.**

"**Mr. Solo. Are you aware that our newest agent is already missing?" Waverly handed over his humidor to be refilled. At least he had the sense to bring a gift when approaching Waverly with his news.**

"**Not so much as lost as being followed." He said calmly and then filled him in about his recent phone call with Lexi and how he was on his way out of headquarters.**

"**Humph!" Waverly grunted as he filled his pipe. "I want you and Miss Lane up here as soon as you get back. I'll send Mr. Kuryakin to see what he can find out who's following her once he gets back"**

"**Yes, sir."**

**Solo waited in Janice Smyth's small office in the Anesthetic Medication section of Lane Pharmaceuticals building. The office was neat as a pin with shelves full of reference materials and reams of chemical technical magazines stacked on its own shelf. There were no personal items that he could tell him more about Lexi's other persona. **

**He casually walked behind the desk, sat down in the stiff, unpadded chair, and started to open the drawers at random. Nothing was unusual, but a small bottle of perfume. Twisting it in the light from a small window caused the cut glass of the bottle to refract prisms on the opposite wall and door. Just then, the door open and UNCLE agent, Monica Lane, walked in as a rainbow of light fell upon her chest.**

"**Cute, Reynolds!" **

**Lexi brought her index finger up to her lips and then to her ears. She walked up to the box of gadgets Napoleon bought with him and took out a specific item that she knew he would have and then waved it around to check for hidden listening devises in the office. **

"**I knew that you were perverted, but do you have to make me your screen?"**

"**Well, you know me." He watched her walk around the small office as he continued to sit at her desk, placing the perfume bottle back in the drawer where he found it.**

"**All clear," Lexi said, sitting down on a chair opposite him "I see that I gave you enough time to go through my office. I stopped by my apartment first to drop off my dress and shoes. I still need to buy some groceries. Here's your wife's perfume."**

"**You went to your apartment!" A stunned Napoleon sat up and slammed the drawer shut.**

"**It's not my real apartment. It's the one I have as a cover; same as this office. I use both as a place for undesirables to search and find nothing." She waved around the room. "There are no gadgets, no clues, or personal items unless I want them to be found here. Very useful if you are trying to avoid CIA, FBI, or UNCLE…"**

"**I do have to give you credit, Lexi. You are thorough."**

"**Napoleon, this isn't my first assignment****what did you bring me? The typical stuff?"**

"**Yes, except for this, your every own communicator pen," Napoleon said and made a show of handing it to her as if it was made of precious jewels.**

"**Thank you." **

**Lane took the pen and expertly opened up it and established an open channel. All Napoleon could do was roll his eyes in grudging amusement.**

"**It doesn't appear that I've got anything to teach you."**

"**There is always something to learn. I still need to learn the different channels. Illya let me open a channel for him one afternoon, but that's all. He even took it apart to show me the electronics involved. Quite fascinating****"**

** "Okay, that's enough technical mumbo-jumbo. Look through the box, tell me what you don't how to use, and I'll explain how to use it."**

"**Fair enough," Lane murmured while pulling the box to her and then rummaged through the items. "Well that's done. Do you want to talk about who is tailing me now?"**

"**First, I want to know where you were this morning. I looked all over for you."**

"**I worked out with Mr. Cummings in the gym from seven o'clock to eight, took a shower, and went to the lab to talk with George. I left him a note to where I'd be. I came here to Lane Labs to confirm my attendance to the forum, waited and accepted the packet of information for the forum, and talked with CEO of Lane Labs about payment for the forum. I then went to a dress shop and got two dresses for the formal reception and dinner at the forum and was going to meet up with Illya for lunch…"**

"**Wait!" Napoleon stopped her narration. "Illya knew where you were going to be for lunch?"**

"**Yes, but****"**

"**No, I'm going to clobber him! He's going to pay for making me run around headquarters all morning long looking for you."**

"**Hey! I think that you should be more upset with George and me. I gave him my schedule, but he'd misplaced it. I didn't check in with you before I left like I should have. You just didn't ask Illya the right questions. You should know that by now!"**

"**What goes on between Illya and I stays between us! I'm his partner, not you!"**

**Lane and Solo hastily stood up and glared at each other for a second, then Lane's face softened and she tiredly sat back down as if to give up with her hands lying in her lap.**

"**You're right. You are his partner and now, my boss. I am**** sorry. I should learn my place, sir."**

"**Lexi, I already have one stubborn Russian who doesn't listen to me." Solo mimicked her exhaustion as he sat down too. "I don't need another right now. I know that it is hard, not being in charge, but you have to trust me and listen to what I say."**

"**I have trust issues, remember?"**

"**I did hear that somewhere. Damn. Illya called this one wrong. He thought that you and April would be battling for who would be top dog. I didn't think it would come down to you and me. Were you in charge of the KGB section here in New York?"**

"**I was in charge of a loose group of assassins that operated here in New York and Washington. I helped on criminal investigations when I was in the Soviet Union. I was the one who assigned agents to their marks and I took the more difficult ones that meant traveling around the world. Most of the agents knew me by my voice on the phone or by messages dropped off by a courier. They didn't know that I was also the messenger as well."**

"**What is this about you being rich?"**

"**Oh, did Illya also tell you that I'm Russian royalty as well?" Lane smiled while snorting out a deep chuckle.**

"**No."**

"**Good, because I'm not, I guess you can say that I am very well to do, but material concerns as having lots of money are not a priority of mine."**

"**I'm all ears."**

"**My mother's father left St. Petersburg with most of his fortune intact and settled here in New York just before the Czars were murdered in the revolution to become one of the largest manufacturers of medications in the United States. When my mother went back to Russia, it was to be with my father while he worked for the Soviet Government and to continue their research. My grandfather had set up a trust fund for my mother, his only heir and any subsequent children she might have."**

"**My parents decided to leave the trust fund alone while they were in Kiev, because of the continued political unrest. I didn't disturb the trust fund until I came here. If I had touched it while I was growing up in the Soviet Union, as a worker and child of the state, I would have to give up the fund. I wanted to keep it safe for my sister and you know how that went."**

"**Yes, it's a shame that she betrayed us all and ended up dead."**

"**The trust fund left me with several companies and enough funds to live rather comfortably. Basically, I give most of it away the part that's considered part of my personal income." Lexi shrugged.**

"**Well, I think that enough time has passed that we can try to get back to headquarters."**

"**Yes, I had the CEO order a female secretary who looks similar to me to take my car to a shop about half a mile from here for here and take a cab back. She should be leaving right about now. Don't worry. I trust him. He likes to make the big bucks and I make it worth his while to keep things quiet. Look out that window and see if the blue sedan is still in the far right side of the parking lot."**

"**Ah, yes, there goes the secretary in a lab coat. She's by what I assume is your car**** got in**** and started the car. She's left and the blue sedan in following. Okay, we can go. My car is around the other side of the building. Let's go."**

**Once back in UNCLE headquarters, Solo and Lane met up with Kuryakin in Waverly's office. Waverly was looking at a photograph up on the monitor. Lexi looked up at it and stopped, as she was about to sit between Napoleon and Illya. She put the small box of gadgets on the table.**

'**I know who that is," she said while pointing to the screen. "It's Nigel Fellows from Cambridge."**

"**You are correct, but no longer from that university, Miss Lane." Waverly nodded as he started to pack tobacco into pipe. "What else can you tell me about him?"**

"**Well sir, he was at Cambridge at the time Illya****Mr. Kuryakin and I were there. He was in medical school and we shared an inorganic chemistry course and an abnormal pathology lab session. He wanted to go into research to find a cure for squamous cell carcinoma and the pain it caused."**

"**I don't remember him." Illya shrugged as he tried to think back to his time at Cambridge.**

"**You probably don't. He wasn't in any of your classes, but he was in a play that we were in. It was a small bit part in the crowd with a line or two at the end of the play."**

"**You were in a play?" Napoleon smiled at his partner with a small dig for the day's activities. "What was it? Peter Pan?"**

"**No." His ice blue eyes rolled up slightly as if he was talking to a simple-minded person. "It was part of the required curriculum from General Kuryakin. While at Cambridge, we were required to take at least two courses in Literature and participate in the production of a play. We chose William Shakespeare and played the main characters in "Hamlet".**

"**I'd like to see you as the Danish Prince," Napoleon sneered, leaning over his arm chair and drawing crazy circles by his well groomed hair.**

"**As I recall, Mr. Kuryakin received several ovations for his performance." Lexi jumped in as he pulled back and gave her a stern warning. Illya just triumphantly smiled before he knew that he had to put a end to her interference.**

"**As did my fair Ophelia, mad as she was." **

**Illya lightly stressed the last part of his comment to let Lexi know that he could take care of his counter-part without her help. She forcibly mouth shut and chewed on her tongue to prevent it from acting on its own, thinking that she might regret her decision to work at UNCLE and Section Two.**

"**Can we get back to the subject of Nigel Fellows?"**

"**Yes, sir," they all said grudgingly to Waverly.**

"**As much as I can recall, Nigel got a job in London right out of College, but I don't know where. It has been years, but I do know he had a great laugh and a big gap between his teeth."**

"**He was reported missing after attending the Rossel Research Forum in London that ended ten weeks ago. His employer thought that he had taken extra time for a honeymoon. He suddenly announced that he had met a fellow attendee and got engaged. No other contact has been made from him since. Dr. Fellows worked for a lab that was using different types of snake venoms to develop medications to help with pain relief and muscle control. It's just in the beginning stages of development for medical use."**

"**Do you think it's someone in the forum staff or one of the participants?" Solo asked.**

"**It's unknown, at this point, Mr. Solo. Now, with Miss Lane being followed, I don't want to hedge my bets. Mr. Kuryakin, what did you see in the parking lot?"**

"**Two THRUSH agents, junior level at best. I got their license plate and heard them talk about having someone going through Miss Smyth's apartment and later tonight, plant bugs in her office. One of them said that he reported that they saw Miss Dancer and I leave the dress shop right before she left. They told their boss, Davis, that they don't know if UNCLE knows Miss Smyth or not. We don't have a THRUSH agent named Davis in our data base, first or last name."**

"**Well, I think that we should give them a show and see where it leads us."**

**Waverly struck a match and lit his pipe. He thought much clearer when the smoke ringed around him like a blanket.**

"**Miss Lane will be seen tonight in her apartment. Mr. Kuryakin will accompany her to the forum and will act as her bodyguard, but from a distance. Let them think that Miss Lane is not with UNCLE and Mr. Kuryakin was invited on his own or interest in finding up and coming scientists for our employment."**

"**Yes, sir," Kuryakin nodded. "I'll start making enquiries into getting invited to the forum. I'll call the Scientific Hall at the University to get a list of attendees and replace my name with one who was unable to attend."**

"**Mr. Solo, you are to get to know the professors and those involved running the traveling forum. See if there are obvious THRUSH connections here in New York."**

"**Yes, sir."**

"**I'll send Miss Dancer and Mr. Slate to London for any possible leads to the last whereabouts of Mr. Fellows."**

"**Miss Lane." Waverly gave her a very stern look. "You will stay in constant contact with Mr. Kuryakin, Mr. Solo, or me. You are not to go out on your own without a communicator. Is that understood? Do you have your packet from the forum here?**

"**Yes, sir, to both." **

**Lexi had to hold her nose and close her eyes, because of the smell of Waverly's pipe smoke that now filled the room. The nausea hit her hard, as she had to swallow down the lump in her throat. She hadn't eaten since breakfast and that was just a slice of toast.**

"**Miss Lane? Are you all right?" Waverly raised his eyebrows. "You appear to be turning green."**

"**No, I'm not. It's the smoke from your pipe on an empty stomach. If you excuse me****"**

**Lane jumped up and ran out of the room, seeking the nearest bathroom.**

"**Well, there's work to be done before tomorrow, gentlemen, you're dismissed. See that Miss Lane has something to eat and gets back to Lane Pharmaceuticals before she returns to her apartment for the night. Send in Miss Dancer and Mr. Slate."**

"**Yes, sir." Both agents nodded and left the room.**

**Napoleon and Illya found where Lexi was and waited for her to come out of the restroom. When she finally stumbled out of the bathroom, she was shaking, pale, and sweating. She caught the sight of them and steeled herself for their impending wrath.**

"**I'm fine, low blood sugar." Lane spat out as she tried to pass them without swaying too much. "I just need to get something to eat. I'll go to the commissary while you two start gathering information. I'll be there shortly."**

"**I do believe that we are being dismissed, Illya," Solo said not moving from the wall that he was leaning against.**

"**She gets very testy if she doesn't eat at least one meal a day."**

"**Hey, just like you when you don't get all three meals."**

**Lane rolled her eyes as she turned to leave and sputtered a curse in Russian. It was common enough one for both men to raise their eyebrows, as they understood it and then follow her to one of the main intersection in the hallway. She turned left, but was grabbed by an arm and steered in the opposite direction by Illya.**

"**Wrong way, Lexi."**

"**We're all going to get something to eat." Napoleon grabbed her other arm as she tried to yank her arm away from her first partner.**

"**I've worked here only for two days. Cossacks, the both of you! *$#$*!" Lane cursed again, making Illya laugh out uncontrollably.**

"**Okay, what language are you cursing in?" Solo asked, stopping everyone in the middle of the hall. "I heard it in the medical ward, at breakfast the other day, and now and then when you two don't want others to understand. I want to know Illya, Lexi?"**

**They looked at each other, smiled, and Lexi nodded for Illya to continue.**

"**It isn't a real language. It's a hybrid of sorts. We made it while we were on missions when we were young. What were we, twelve or thirteen?"**

"**Twelve. It was to help keep me up to speed with you." Lexi continued on for Illya as she turned to Napoleon. "I had to work extra hard to master as many languages as Illya had learned. He had natural ability to think in each language he learns, damn him. **

"**I'm not so lucky, so Illya would help me by making it a game by combining all of the languages we knew by shifting the words, vowels, and tenses randomly. It kept us focused on the mission and was a distraction from the cold weather."**

**Napoleon sighed, rubbed his neck, and then he shook his head.**

"**More of that advance learning training from good old General Boris Kuryakin? So, how many languages did you two combine?"**

"**Well, at that age, we knew Russian, High and Low Land German, French, Proper English, Latin, Mandarin, and a basic Arabic."**

"**I was such a fun game that it became its own language."**

"**Well, after all of that information, now I'm really hungry. Let's all eat, talk about the case, and get Lexi back to Lane Labs before she passes out."**

"**I am not going to pass out! I am fine! It was Waverly's pipe smoke that did it to me."**

"**I dare you to walk a straight line without help or find the commissary on your own."**

"**Must you always have strings attached, Napoleon?"**

"**Yes, he does. That is why I suffer****" Illya began to act forlorn as he took her arm again and steered her into the right corridor as she tried to take the wrong turn again with the CEA bringing up the rear, head bent with a smile, hands in his pockets, and shaking his head.**

**Janice Smyth walked into the New York University Hall and went to the registration table and was met by a man that looked like Mr. Solo.**

"**Good Morning, can I help you?" He smiled with a pencil in his hand and a list of names. "Are you here for the Rossel Research Forum?" **

"**Yes, my name is Janice Smyth from Lane Pharmaceuticals. Here is a business card. My Boss wants me to pass them out to anyone who will take one." Lane said in her spot on Boston accent.**

"**I'll take one, thank you Miss Smyth." The dark-haired gentleman smiled. "You received your packet? Good. Here is the schedule of lectures and assigned rooms. The reception will be held at the President's home tonight at six. Your identification tag and registration are in there as well. Welcome to the Rossel Research Forum."**

"**Thank you for all your invaluable help. I hope to see you again."**

"**First the meeting is down the hall, second door on the right."**

**Smyth smiled, nodded, and took off down the hall.**

"**Next."**

**Janice Smyth found the door to the small auditorium, opened it, and looked around. Each row had its own table to sit behind so each student could spread out their notes and books. She picked a row in the middle and off to the right of the center. Not too close to be picked on for answers, but close enough to hear everything that was said in the front and the back of the room.**

"**Just like college the first time around." She murmured to herself as she settled into her chair and opened her bag.**

"**It is, isn't it?" A handsome man with green eyes and glasses agreed with her as he put his bag next to hers. "Do you mind?"**

"**No, I'm sorry; I didn't know that anyone had heard me. I'm Janice Smyth from Lane Pharmaceuticals. My boss wants me to pass out these cards, but what he doesn't know, can't hurt can it?" **

**Lane motioned him to take the seat next to her and made a point of throwing the business cards back in her bag.**

"**Mr. Josh Green, from the National Institute of Health. Be aware, I work for the government."**

"**I won't hold that against you."**

**While she was placing her notepad on the table, she noticed that Illya had taken a spot a few rows back and up to the left of her and Napoleon was in the right back corner by the door acting as course monitor.**

**Other than a few cordial words back and forth with Green, Lane and Kuryakin spent most of the first morning listening to different lecturers' give their speeches and their findings. The answers and questions section was lively as some participates were becoming very zealous in stating their point of view. **

**Lunch was informal, so that the professors could meet the attendees. Green had insisted that Lexi meet some of his colleagues from the federal government that worked in healthcare and research. Illya had lingered on the edge of the group and quietly listened to the pleasant gathering of like-minded scientists.**

**Back in the auditorium, the scientists had rearranged themselves closer to those they had met at lunch or favored the same opinion. The UNCLE agents kept their same seats as did Green. Illya could tell that he was interested in the female agent, but it appeared to be more of a personal nature than for where she worked.**

"**Hey, Janny," Green called out before the lecture started. "Can I see your notes?"**

"**Not a prob, it's just you might not be able to read them. I use my own short hand when I sit in lecture."**

**Lane showed Green her notes and he made a silly show of turning her notepad upside down to even try to read it.**

"**Boy, you aren't kidding. The penmanship is neat, but I can't read the words. I don't think that some of these are in English."**

"**All right, funny boy, hand me yours, since you saw mine. I bet you a drink at the reception tonight that I can even read your poor handwriting." Lexi put out her hand, demanding it. He handed it over with an inviting smile and folded arms across his chest.**

"**You're on, because I know that no one, but me can read my writing."**

"**The application of a stabilized base if imperative to allow****"**

"**I don't believe it!" Green smiled, wanting to lose all the time. "I owe you a drink. Can I pick you up as well?"**

"**No Mr. Green, I'll meet you there. I wouldn't want to appear too easy to pick up just yet." She smiled sweetly, giving him a warm squeeze on his arm. "We had better settle down. The lecture is about to start."**

"**Right, we'll play later." **

**Illya could hear that last comment and decided that he would be his first person to have his partner check out.**

"**Oh, Josh!" Lexi snorted as everyone turned to the lecturer. A few more people besides Illya noticed their conversation as well. Others watched with interest, because the subject matter could be a little dry and it was giving them some entertainment.**

"**Well, Napoleon?" Lexi asked after he gave the all-clear sign as she walked into the lab section in Lane Pharmaceuticals. "How did you survive your first day of the forum?"**

"**Luckily, I was able to go back and forth or I would have snored louder than the person given the lecture. How do you two do it?"**

"**Ancient Russian techniques, a little brain washing, mind-altering drugs, and well you know..."**

"**No, I don't know."**

"**Right. Now tell me that Josh Green is who he says he is."**

"**Yes, he seems to be." Solo started to play with a beaker on the Formica table. "Most of the attendees and staff seem to be who they're supposed to be and most of attendees seem to have a THRUSH agent tailing them. As soon as Illya had gotten out the Scientific Hall, he picked one up too. His wasn't a given just any junior THRUSH agent like most of you got, but a well-known superior THRUSH agent." **

"**So, that'll mean that another UNCLE agent will be following home and that I will not be seeing you or Illya until later tonight at the reception."**

"**Yes."**

"**Can I take Josh home with me?"**

"**That will be up to you." Napoleon smiled. "Can't stand to be alone for even a day?" **

"**Jealous, Napoleon," She asked with a purr.**

"**Say, how soon do you think it'll be before someone might be selected as a potential new employee of THRUSH?"**

"**I'd say by the beginning of next week when the labs start. The end of this week will be a mock test for certification and determining factor in who runs each assigned group as leaders for the various experiments. The scores are announced out in front of the class."**

**There was silence as Lexi watched Napoleon continue to play with the beaker.**

"**What is more important to you, for me or Illya to be top of the class?"**

"**Let's play it by ear for now. Oh, I almost forgot. Here, this is for you from George and Illya. Since you can't go back to headquarters for a while..."**

**Solo handed Lane a jewelry box with cream-colored pearls in it. It had a necklace, bracelet, drop earrings, and a ring with a single large pearl on the top. Lane's eyes widened as she took the ring, rubbed the right side of it, and the large pearl opened up. **

**Then she picked a pearl off its backing on the bracelet, placed it inside of the larger pearl and closed it with a soft click. **

"**The backing of the pearl is made of wax." Lane said wispily as she now rubbed the left side of the ring until a small hypodermic needle pointed out from the back of the ring with drops of some kind of drug coming out. "There is enough in each pearl to be used on two to three grown adults, men preferably. Perfect."**

**The last words came out with a purr and a pleasurable smile on her face. Solo watched her with fascination.**

"**Lexi, do me a favor."**

"**Yes, Napoleon," she said in a daze, not fully listening.**

** Lane put the pearls back into the box, closed the lid, and then finally looked up at him. **

"**Never let me piss you off enough for you to use that on me."**

"**Let's hope you don't. This even isn't the worst one of my batches of nasties."**

**Kuryakin sat at the bar at the reception in the New York University's President's house while his THRUSH agent waited outside. He was nursing his untouched shot of vodka while he watched the other attendees and professors talk with each other and exchange business cards. He had talked to a couple of fellow scientists himself here and there.**

**Josh Green and a couple of his colleagues came into the room and went right to the bar, laughing and being loud enough to stop most of the conversations and gathering a mixture of looks around the room. Kuryakin thought Green and his friends reminded of some college frat boys out for a good time. Hardly how typical scientists acted and he knew who Green would be looking for at the moment.**

**Lane walked into the room and all eyes turned to her. Her shiny auburn hair was tied in a French knot that showed off the back of her neck. It was one of Illya's favorite spots to touch on her body. Her dress was sapphire blue satin with a square neckline and empire waist. The hem stopped just above her knees that fitted her body all in the right spots. **

**Green saw her and smiled hungrily. He walked up to her, gave her a quick bow, and brought her to the bar by the hand.**

"**I promised to buy you a drink. Pick your poison." **

**They stood by Kuryakin and slightly pushed him to the side, almost spilling his drink.**

"**You know what looks good is…what this gentleman is having. I'll have that."**

"**Vodka, ice cold."**

"**Yes, vodka and your name?"**

"**Illya Kuryakin, how do you do Miss?"**

"**Janice Smyth of Lane Pharmaceuticals," she said smoothly as he kissed her hand with a short bow and slight click of his heels. "You have a great Eastern European accent. Where are you from?"**

"**Come on Janny, let's get our drinks and go sit over there with Bill and Julie." Green rudely interrupted.**

"**In a minute, I want to know where he's from. I could score big points with my boss if I find a company that imports raw materials from Russia or Poland. Are you from one of those countries?"**

"**Yes****"**

"**Janny, you're a scientist, not a sales person." Green persisted, trying to pull her away.**

"**Wait a minute! I have to be both right now. Lane labs are on the verge of hitting the big times with its advancements in Anesthesia drugs, especially hypnotics and analgesics. It could mean stock options for me. Give me a moment to talk to this guy and I'll be right there. I promise. I've to find a specific salt compound only found in Russia or Poland to stabilize my formula. I can't leave without asking him if he knows."**

"**Fine, when you are ready to have some fun instead of working, come join us."**

**Green was weary of competition that Kuryakin was giving him for her attention, but didn't want to push his luck or he wouldn't get his chance at all. He left her side as he gave this fellow attendee a challenging look.**

"**Excuse me, Miss Smyth, if there a problem? I don't want to intrude****"**

"**Not at all, he just wants to get laid during this forum, go back to his little job, and tell all his friends about it. But, he is good looking enough… I just might want to give him what he wants all night long." She said with an evil smile, saying the last sentence only loud enough for others to hear.**

"**Wow! I would guess that he's not the only one here at this forum that would want that."**

"**Is that an offer, Mr. Kuryakin?"**

"**Call me Illya and if you were inclined too, yes. I think that most men here would take you up on that offer. Especially in that dress…"**

"**Thank you, but I'm supposed to talk business for my boss, because he paid for me coming to this forum. What I need to know is if you can help me find a manufacture of raw glacial salt compounds."**

"**I am Russian and have many connections through my employer as well. I'd be most interested in your formula, maybe we could meet again during the conference?"**

"**Yes, here's my company's card. I think that I've talked enough business for now. It was nice to me you. Good night."**

**Lexi accepted another kiss on her hand from Illya, took her drink, walked over to Josh Green, and joined their group.**

**After her departure, Napoleon walked up to the bar and ordered a drink.**

"**Did you see?"**

"**Yes and I heard. She said it just loud enough to spark some attention."**

"**The game has started."**

**Solo took his drink and walked around, asking people in the room if they were enjoying themselves at the forum.**

"**That was interesting."**

"**Do you think this show was for us to think that Smyth is involved with Solo and Kuryakin or that they are trying to lure her to them? Maybe, that's why they're at the dress shop, to check her out."**

"**I thought we were after Mendes, not her?"**

"**Change of target. With UNCLE here, we'll have to give up this venue for recruitment anyway. How was her first day?"**

"**It's too hard to tell at this point and time. She's attentive in the lecture hall, but doesn't speak up to participate. When Green flashed her notes, they were in another language although, I couldn't tell which one."**

"**Not usual fair for someone who was born in Boston and has never left the country to write in another language. Continue to watch her in lectures and tell me her test scores. See if she purposely does average or gets the highest score. I'd seriously doubt that her lab skills would be lacking that we couldn't add her to the fold like the others."**

"**Do you think that she would go willingly?"**

"**No, she will not want to go easily and I know that Kuryakin would miss her presence if they want her for UNCLE. We'll have to take him as well. THRUSH Central would like a piece of him, once we are done with our new conditioning method…" **

"**That's if the formula works better on them than on Fellows."**

"**They could be the first ones we use it on with some measure of success. We've altered it since it was used on him. Dr. Kuryakin is no shrinking violet when it comes to working in the labs either with his PhD in Quantum Mechanics. He could be very useful to us."**

"**What about Solo and the other agents snooping around, keeping tabs on his partner?"**

"**We'll pick our time to act and distract Solo. I'll have Davis prepare for two instead of one. This could be my chance to be a part of THRUSH Central of Western Hemisphere if I deliver both of them."**

"**Yes, sir."**

**Illya knocked on the door of the Regency Hotel room #3125 and waited. He'd received a call on his communicator for him to meet here once he slipped the THRUSH agent following him. The door lock clicked, he quietly opened it, walked in, and silently closed it again.**

"**Did you bring it with you?"**

"**I thought you were with Green tonight? I saw you leave with him and his group of friends. Quite the show you put on for the first day."**

**Illya casually stood in the middle of the hotel suite's living room as he watched her grab some shot glasses from the wet bar's freezer along with a iced bottle vodka and brought it to the coffee table.**

"**I did, but he's too smooth for me." Lexi shrugged as she bent over to fill the glasses and handed one to him. "I slipped him a sedative and used my new hypnotic on him to suggest to him that we had a really, really good time and he was so exhausted that he fell asleep for the whole night, not even caring that I'd left before he woke up."**

"**Won't he know that he wasn't taken care of?" Illya knowingly smiled as he drank down his vodka.**

"**Are you suggesting I don't know how to take care of a man?"**

"**Yes, when you don't actually sleep with them."**

**Lexi held onto her glass as she felt Illya's hand caress her body and stop at her shoulders, lightly pulling a strand of hair from her French knot and twisting it in his fingers as she leaned into his caress.**

"**How many people did you meet who were interested in your formula?"**

"**Several of the attendees and professors gave me their business cards each time I went to the bar to get another drink and waiting for me to offer the proposition I gave you. Josh had finally had enough of my admirers and the group left for this hotel's bar, taking me with them."**

"**Whom do you think might have interested our feathery friends if you hadn't stolen the show?"**

"**My guess is on Mendes or Vincent, both were very interested in telling me their needs of finding backing for their own formulas, but weren't so willing to tell me what they were making. I think each of them wanted to know if Lane labs were willing to support their endeavors without getting too involved with watching the bottom line or sharing in the end results. Very selfish of them, don't you think?" **

"**That is what I thought as well, when I talked to them. I'm inclined to think that since I've shown up and they saw April and I leave just before you came out, that we've become their new targets for sure. I'll tell Napoleon our information on our two new acquaintances just in case they try to recruit them anyway."**

**Illya took his and Lexi's drinking glasses, set them down on the table, and started to remove her dress.**

"**Hey, did I say you could do that?" Lexi said in a mock angry tone, but didn't try to stop him.**

"**No, but you are not looking for someone who treats you like an easy conquest as Green would have. Telling you that your eyes shine brightly as the stars, skin smooth as silk, and a body that rivals the goddess Venus."**

"**I'm not?"**

"**No. You are looking for someone who ignores you, is very rude, drinks up all your vodka, and is very Russian."**

**Lexi's dress was the first thing to fall to the floor; not definitely not the last. Illya then threw her over his shoulder and took her to the bedroom.**

"**Cossack!"**

"**Da!"**

"**You didn't stick around last night. I was hoping that we could've had breakfast this morning."**

**Josh Green smiled down at Lane as he took his seat next to her while she smiled sweetly back and shrugged.**

"**I had to go into work early this morning and didn't want to show up in what I had worn the night before. Very unprofessional…"**

"**I want you to know that I had a very nice time last night." **

"**I did too." She leaned close to him so no one else could hear. "What was your favorite part?"**

"**Well****I****can't just pick one****"**

**Green really couldn't remember much from the night before and fidgeted as she called his bluff. Lane just smiled warmly, nodded, and then went back to finish pulling out her note pad and pen from her book bag.**

"**Maybe we could have a repeat of what we did last night, tonight?"**

"**Maybe****but not tonight, I need my rest."**

**Green's face brightened with renewed hope as he settled in his chair proud as a peacock.**

**The rest of the morning went without incident or excitement as the lecture began with compositions of amnesia or hypnotic drugs and their dosages in the adult patients.**

**. **

**Solo had to get up from his chair in the back of the auditorium to stretch his legs or he was going to fall asleep. He walked out the door to the water fountain and took a long cold drink to wake himself up as he wondered how Illya could possibly think this subject was interesting. **

**He walked around the perimeter of the Scientific Hall's entrance to watch what activities were going on around the forum. The service staff was setting up a table to serve a light lunch and registration for another conference was in full swing. Solo nodded quietly to some of the UNCLE agents dispersed around the room as he started to walk back to the auditorium with a tired sigh. **

"**Only only more hour until lunch…"**

"**I think that we need to move up our time table."**

"**Why?"**

"**Because the longer we sit here, the more UNCLE will be in place to shut us down before we can recruit our two new lab techs."**

"**I'll call Davis and move it up. Enjoy your lunch."**

"**Thank you, I will Professor."**

**It was hard for Lexi to wait for the afternoon break to use the restroom. She swore to herself for drinking too much tea with her sandwich at lunch. Having become bored in the lecture, she used this time to look around the room and at the people near her. Most of them were frantically taking notes. **

**Her eyes briefly settled on Green who gave her a wink as he noticed her bouncing her leg up and down to relieve some of the tension. Then she looked back up to the clock as she shifted her gaze behind her. Illya was deep in concentration with his black rimmed glass pushed so far forward that they were just about to fall off his nose. **

**What had really caught her eye was the way Julie Wallace, from Green's group, stared back at her. She could see a look of anticipation that made her nervous. Julie's eyes bore down on her as she gave a hard smile and then she raised her arm to rest her chin on her hand. She was wearing a unique man's ring on her middle finger.**

**Lane turned back to the lecturer as she began to wonder what was so familiar about that ring. She shook her head slowly as her mind whirled in thought and then stopped when she looked at the formula that Professor Augustine had placed on the overhead. Her eyes constricted as she smiled slightly, she had suddenly figured out that those two were working for THRUSH.**

"**Fellows," Lane mouthed silently as the Professor wolfishly eyed her and then turned to Kuryakin. He didn't notice, because his head was turned to scan the room. She could almost see a smile touch Professor Augustine's face in the glow from the overhead machine with a black marker in hand, tapping it with his large finger. He straightened up from his hunched over position and capped his pen.**

"**That's all for today. Our test will be in the morning over the material we have covered. Remember that this will help us find out who will be our group leaders for the lab sessions. Study hard and don't forget your lab coats. Good afternoon."**

**While everyone started to gather their notes, Lane took this time to scribble something on a sheet of paper, crumple it up in a look of quick frustration, and then finish putting her notepad in her bag.**

"**Janny, are you going to join us for a study group this evening instead of resting up?" Green asked her mischievously. "Or we can have our own study group? I'm sure that Bill and Julie won't mind."**

"**Tempting, but I have to get back to Lane Labs and make an appointment with that Russian guy, Mr. Kurry something for him to meet with my boss . . . "**

"**I think that Janice and I need to go powder our noses. I'm sure I can persuade her to come with us, Josh. Come on, Janice. We can talk about girl stuff and what we are going to wear tomorrow night at the dinner. Maybe you can help me find a fancy dress that I can afford while we are here in town."**

**Julie took Lexi by the arm and started to lead her out of the auditorium. Her hands were firmly wrapped around Lane's arm.**

"**Well...I don't know...I really should be..."**

"**Nonsense! You are coming with me, Bill, and Josh. I insist!"**

"**Oh, alright, but let me throw my trash away first."**

**Lexi chose the trash bin right in front of Napoleon and gave him a quick look as she and Wallace continued on into the hall. After most of the attendees passed him and went through the doors, Solo bent down and picked up the rumpled piece of paper that simply said. "Find me."**

**Illya had watched his partner pick up the piece of crumpled paper, lift his head, and looked around the hall for someone. He knew it had to be Lexi he was looking for and started to look for her as well. He'd watched over most of the attendees during the lecture and lost track of where Lexi had dashed off to when everyone stood up. **

**There she was, about to go into the restroom with a friend of Green's who had her arms wrapped around Lexi's. Kuryakin was about to make his way towards Solo when he was grabbed and felt the cold hard steel of a gun silencer in his side by his waist.**

"**Make a sound or wrong move and you die. Don't even turn around. Keep walking into the crowd and out the doors to the kitchen."**

"**Professor, do you think that after hearing your lecture for the last hour and a half that I wouldn't know your voice."**

"**I don't care if you do, Kuryakin. You'll not know your own name soon. THRUSH will pay me exceedingly well for just getting you to Central. Dead or alive doesn't matter, but someone else has plans for you and that pretty Smyth girl first."**

"**Why do you want her?"**

"**Why does UNCLE want her? We know that you've been watching her as well. Now, shut up and keep walking."**

**Solo was looking all around to see where Lane had gone with that other female attendee. A rush of people coming out of all of the lectures halls at once, making it difficult to spot her. He started to move to where she had been going only to be stopped by a group passing in the other direction. The more he tried to push forward, the more he was going nowhere fast.**

**Before he could move, Solo's communicator clicked on and he could hear muffled noises just as gunshots rang out into the front part of the hall. Smoke started to fill the room as people ran screaming in every direction. He ducked down, pulled out his gun, and tried to crawl forward through the crowd as he began to choke on the smoke.**

**Once Napoleon made it to the far wall, he fell back against a door frame and fumbled inside his jacket to find his communicator pen and open a channel.**

"**Open channel D! There is an emergency situation in the Science Hall! A smoke bomb exploded and gun shots were fired! All agents need to report in and locate agents Lane and Kuryakin!" Solo gasped out as his throat felt thick from the acid fumes that hung in the air. **

**It was hard for Solo to hear anything over the deafening sounds of the fire alarms, screams of those around him, and his own heartbeat ringing in his ears. He pulled out is locator to see if he could find Lane through her homing device in her communicator pen.**

**Through bleary, burning eyes, he followed the signal into the women's bathroom. The room had been closed off to the smoke and he was able to breathe easier as he slowly stood up and started to open the doors to each stall to find Lexi.**

**The tracer showed that she should be in the second to last stall, but when he opened the door he found it was empty. Exhausted and frustrated, Solo sat on the toilet, put his gun away and raised his communicator to his mouth.**

"**Open channel D. Mr. Waverly."**

"**Mr. Solo, what is the situation?"**

"**Sir, I am in the Ladies Restroom, where Lexi is supposed to be, but she isn't here!**

**Just as he sighed out his frustrations, he let the door to the stall close shut and he saw Lane's communicator pen resting on the blade of a petite knife with the initials AK on it jammed in the side of the coat hook on the back of the door. In black magic marker were the words written **_**File: 41837**_** just below the knife.**

"**Mr. Solo!"**

"**Sir, she left us a message, one of her knives, her communicator, and words, file 41837."**

"**Bring it back with you to headquarters; I'll have the other agents sweep the building. I doubt that Miss Lane or Mr. Kuryakin will still be there. His communicator signal has been destroyed. I can only hope that where he is, she is there as well."**

"**Yes, sir."**

**Napoleon was upset that he was unable to find Lexi. He knew that she and Illya were supposed to flush out who working for THRUSH, but couldn't help but feel a usual dread that they could be abused or killed before he could find them.**

"**Well, Lexi, I hope that I have an easier time finding you this time than the last."**

**Solo tiredly got up, grabbed the knife with communicator hanging from it, and walked out of the ladies' restroom to face the mayhem outside.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three **

**Kuryakin was easily led out of the Scientific Hall and its kitchen due to the gunshots and smoke bombs in the front. People were running in every direction and no one seemed to notice the non-descript delivery van pick the two men up.**

**Once in, Kuryakin met another couple of THRUSH guards. The smaller one had a gun pointed at him and the larger one searched him, removed his gun, destroyed his communicator, and then pointed to the seat next to Lane. She looked up at him with fear in her eyes, but didn't say anything. Her left cheek was red and modeled from a slap that had left a hand print on it.**

"**Sit down, Kuryakin and keep quiet!" The giant man glared down at him as he came closer with handcuffs in his fat hands attached to a heavy chain and proceeded to wrap them tightly around his wrists and ankles. Kuryakin slightly grimaced in pain, but didn't remark about the rough treatment with the other one keeping his gun at eye level. **

**Instead, he looked back at Lane with inquiring eyes. She met his eyes steadily and did the smallest movement to the left, telling him that she was all right. Kuryakin looked around the van and noticed that its windows had been silvered to prevent him from looking out. He'd seen that Lane was handcuffed as well.**

"**Is it really necessary to have her handcuffed? I doubt that she even knows what is going on." **

"**Yes, it is." **

**Wallace angrily turned her head to Lane. Kuryakin saw the deep red scratches and dried blood on her cheek.**

"**Well, you're the one who pulled my hair and dragged me off to this van. I don't know who you two are, but I have to get back to my job…"**

"**You work for THRUSH now." **

**Professor Augustine shrugged his shoulders calmly as if talking to an overly-dramatic, upset student, but he had limit. He was a solid looking man with graying at the temples, but able to hold his own if need be. In comparison, Julie Wallace was a mousey-looking female with a long, horse face. **

"**Who or what is THRUSH? I already have a job that makes good money."**

"**You will find out about it all later. Now shut up!" Wallace said, threatening to strike her again.**

"**Mr. Kuryakin, you've been almost too pleasant on this trip so far. UNCLE's presence at the forum has shut down one of my most lucrative ways for THRUSH to find their scientists. You'll more than make up for that, once I'm done with you and THRUSH Central gets their hands on you."**

"**I see that I'm still as popular as ever."**

"**You've caused considerable damage with your compulsion to destroy our operations with your explosive devices and infernal tinkering. I know there are many operatives just here in New York alone that would love to have you for target practice…"**

"**I would not want to disappoint you, Professor, or my fans at THRUSH, but I don't intend to help you in your grand scheme. UNCLE will stop you from kidnapping scientists and forcing them to work for THRUSH. Once they find out that you failed with me, you'll be of no value to them." **

**Kuryakin smiled darkly at his capturers as his ice blue eyes made the van's interior turn colder.**

"**We shall see, Dr. Kuryakin. Right now, I have the advantage and I plan to use it."**

"**Do what you must to me, but let Miss Smyth go. She has nothing to do with this."**

"**But she does. Miss Smyth here will help THRUSH a great deal in developing formulas can be used against our enemies."**

"**Why would I do that?" Lane softly spoke up suddenly with curiosity. **

"**Because, you'll be unable to help yourself my dear, Wallace, hand me her notes. We might as well kill some time while we are waiting."**

**Wallace grabbed Lane's bag, fished out her note pad, and promptly handed it to Professor Augustine who opened it and looked from page to page with an impressive look on his face.**

"**Yes, I'm glad we picked you instead of Mendes."**

"**And why is that?" Lane said in a disgruntled, tired voice.**

"**Because, Miss Smyth, I have been watching you in lecture. You take notes, but not of what's going on exactly. More as a background format for true inspiration while creating your own formulas in that head of yours and it's in here. I know it is. You're going to help me find it."**

"**You're nuts! All that is in there are my lecture notes in short hand."**

"**Yes, they are, but they are also in another language. What is it?"**

"**I don't know what you are talking about." **

"**A good lie, but I will find out the truth."**

"**What lie? I'm from Boston and I work for Lane Pharmaceuticals, nothing more. I don't even know who or what UNCLE or THRUSH are and I don't know Mr. Kuryakin here except that he might have helped me find a glacial salt compound from Russia for a drug that I'm working on. Is that the formula you want? You can have it, if it gets me out of here."**

"**Another lie, but I will play along anyway. What is it suppose to do?" Wallace asked with false excitement.**

"**It's a new peripheral pain reliever that doesn't include aspirin. It could score us millions in the "over the counter" market. Lane Pharmaceuticals has already started working on the research for the patent." **

"**No! I'm looking for a mixture of hypnotics, muscle relaxants, and amnesias. I don't want a sub-standard pain reliever. You'll have to do better than that if you want to avoid being conditioned."**

"**Conditioned for what?"**

"**That is what you and Kuryakin are going to test for us. We almost have our techniques perfected and you two are going to tell us if we got it right."**

**Augustine and Wallace smiled happily to each other as Lane swallowed nervously and looked to Kuryakin, who just merely leaned back and placed his arms on his legs. **

**Suddenly, there was a knock on the darken divider between the front of the van where the driver was.**

"**Ah…that is our signal that our trip in almost done." Augustine nodded to one of the thugs and he drew out a gun. "I'm sorry we have to do this to you both while we are having such a lively conversation, but since we can't have you knowing where we are going…"**

**He signaled the man and he proceeded to shoot Kuryakin and then Lane with a tranquilizing dart. Both of them dropped back against the wall of the van.**

**Solo was already fighting a dull headache before he got back to headquarters from the smoke fumes, now he had to report to Mr. Waverly what the status of finding Kuryakin and Lane was.**

"**Mr. Solo, how goes the search?" **

**Waverly looked up at the CEA as he entered to Office with evidence that he kept from the ladies' restroom and placed it on the table. Waverly picked up the slim, elegant knife to examine it.**

"**AK" Solo stated the initials on the knife handle. "It seems odd that Miss Lane would keep something on her that has a clue on it from her past?" **

"**Yes, that is odd, but maybe that is what she wanted you to have. I believe that this is one of her favorite weapons that she keeps on her. The balance is perfect for a person her size."**

"**Nothing was done to the communicator. She did turn on the open channel just before the gunshots rang out, but I didn't hear what was said. I was trying to get a visual on her from the note she left for me. I'd given it to her two days ago and told her to keep it on her at all times."**

"**There must have been a reason to disregard your order. What did the note say?"**

""**Find' me' was all it said. I think that she had figured out who were working for THRUSH and wanted to tell me tonight at the lab."**

"**Yes, quite right. I think that I have under estimated Miss Lane's abilities. She's a jump ahead of most of our Section Two agents, even those with extensive field experience. She's more willing to sacrifice herself more than one should."**

"**Much like our other Russian agent, eh? He isn't very trusting of other people until they prove themselves first."**

"**Yes." Waverly said while he was deep in thought. "Trust is an issue. Wait! What did you say was written on the wall?"**

"**File:41837."**

**Mr. Waverly sat his pipe down, turned to his desk, unlocked a drawer, pulled out a file, and passed it to Napoleon.**

"**I think that you should read this. I was going to read it after Miss Lane's first week here to gather my own impression of her before hand, but now it can't wait."**

**Solo read the name of the file, looked up in shock in what Waverly had in his possession and wondered why he hadn't read this right away?**

"**You have Lexi's personal file from the KBG?"**

"**She gave it me as a demonstration of trust." Waverly smiled while he played with his pipe.**

"**Hers or ours?"**

"**That is for you to find out, Mr. Solo. She had "appropriated" it before her timely death in Kiev. I assume that it is all in Russian. I hope that your skills are still fresh from two months ago?"**

"**I hope so too," Napoleon started to unseal the folder and pull out the file gingerly as if it could explode any moment.**

"**What have you to report from the other agents who were at the Science Hall?"**

"**Not much, sir, Agent Dewall was posted in the rear of the building by the kitchen and delivery entrance. He reported there were several people coming out at the same time and couldn't pick out Kuryakin or Lane. He did see that there was a white delivery van that stopped and left during that time. The license plate was obscured and the windows were darkened to be unable to see inside. Before he could investigate, he hit over the head by an unknown assailant."**

"**We were able to track the van for about twenty minutes, but then all of our tracking devices on Kuryakin were destroyed and their whereabouts lost. We had one tracer on Lane, but it was found and removed just before she was taken out of the building. The signals were lost around the downtown area. The van was found abandoned and with no traces of where they might have been taken. They could be anywhere by now."**

"**What about the airports?"**

"**No activity has been reported from our informants. I believe that they may have been taken to THRUSH Headquarters or a new secret laboratory complex. I've research and development working on possible sites around the city."**

"**So, it's a waiting game until I can read her file and we can find a place to start looking."**

"**Quite right, Mr. Solo, I'm calling back Mr. Slate and Miss Dancer. They've found no trace of Fellows in London and they can help us look for our missing agents." Waverly waved his pipe at Solo as he started to get up from the table. "The sooner we find them, the quicker we can destroy a key recruiting source for THRUSH."**

"**Yes, sir." **

**Solo turned and left Waverly's office, holding Lexi's file in his hand. He was hoping that getting to know her might be what he needs right now to help him find them.**

"**Wake up, sleeping beauty!"**

**A stinging slap burned a crossed Kuryakin's face, waking him up with a start. Dazed, he roughly grabbed out for the hands that were trying to bring him back to consciousness. His spitted out a nasty Russian curse as he was pulled to his feet, which he could barely keep underneath him.**

**As his mind cleared, Kuryakin noticed that he was dressed in plain scrub pants and a short-sleeve shirt. He wondered how long they had drugged him, looking around to find out that he was in some type of hospital room. Dragging his tongue over his false molar, he felt the hole where his tracking device had been and the lock pick was missing.**

**Kuryakin scanned to see if Lane was in the room as his hands were ruthlessly pulled behind him, handcuffed, and shoved out of the room, but she wasn't there. He was taken to an observation room where some type of medical procedure was being performed in a room down below. A pair of hands pushed him forward to the front of the window and next to a non-descript man with glasses, holding a file.**

"**Welcome, Mr. Kuryakin. You're finally awake. Come; see what we have in store for you."**

**Illya looked down at what was going on to see it was a surgical operation being performed. Everything was draped out except for the right ear and side of the neck. Instantly, he knew that it was Lexi under those drapes.**

"**Oh, yes. That's our clever friend, Miss Smyth. The way I hear it from Augustine is that she maybe the one that Fellows was talking about before he had a bad reaction to the medication. Almost an "**_**idiot savant"**_** one could say in chemistry.**

**The blond UNCLE agent didn't say a word as he watched in horrid fascination as Professor Augustine made an incision in Lexi's head right behind the ear and started to make an opening to one of her temporal arteries with a hemostat and scissors.**

"**It's quite an ingenious device that requires only a minimally invasive procedure. The reservoir is timed to deliver continuous medication needed to provide the correct conditioned response."**

"**Which is, Davis?"**

**Davis smiled at Kuryakin's knowledge of who he was, nodded to the introduction, and then turned back to the surgery, watching a long tube being inserted into the vessel and stitched in place.**

"**Simply put, to shut off part of a person's cognitive functions that deals with the ability to refuse orders given them while decreases other thoughts and emotions that could interfere with those orders. Hopefully, not cutting off the functions of the brain that harbor creativity and improve the skills to enhance and use information given to them."**

"**That would be hard to achieve in the best of circumstances. I believe that you've hinted that the medication wasn't quite perfected? Why would you use it on her if you want her assistance? What happened to Fellows?"**

"**You were listening; good man. We, at THRUSH Central have been interested in Augustine's little project for quite some time. You and Smyth were merely icing on the cake."**

**Kuryakin watched the mad doctor suture the tube down on Lexi's pale skin and attach the cylinder reservoir to the side of her head with shot screws just behind the ear on the edge of her hairline.**

"**Fellows was one of our first functioning test subjects and was working out fine, until he got the tubing caught. It has a build it in feature to dump the full day's dose in at once if the reservoir is tampered with or if signaled by remote control. Such a shame, he's been catatonic for a few weeks now. I don't know if he'll ever recover or not."**

"**What did Fellows say to make you think that Miss Smyth is who you are look for?"**

"**Before his conditioning had started, he told Julie Wallace, his fiancée, that he knew of a girl at Cambridge that had an unnatural ability to create formulas. Well, we didn't believe him, but he was insistent. Said that she was from an Eastern European country, he didn't know which one or her name, but wonderfully blue eyes. The only other thing he could remember is that she acted in a play with him. That is all we could get from him before the accident."**

"**Miss Smyth has brown eyes."**

"**No, actually she had contacts in. Her eyes are as blue as yours. Then you and UNCLE showed up and started to poke around, showing great interest in Smyth as well, why is that?" **

"**I'm sorry, but that's classified. I'd have to kill you if I told you," Illya said casually while his cold, threatening, glacial blue eyes vowed to do what he promised. **

"**Charming sense of humor you have, Mr. Kuryakin. I sure you'd kill me if you were given a chance no matter what. I'll be friendly though and tell you why Augustine and THRUSH have become so interested in her and it's not because of what Fellows said."**

"**I'm all ears, so to speak, Mr. Davis."**

"**I bet you are. We took the time to research her background and found nothing. Not a trace of who she is, how old she is, where she went to school. Nothing, other than that she was from Boston. What she, herself, has said. Lane Pharmaceuticals barely has an employee record on her. Most intriguing for someone who seems to draw attention with her looks and charm.**

"**Another problem we had was the fact that this little chickadee doesn't have fingerprints that are listed in any of the Governmental data banks in the United States, UNCLE, or THRUSH. We are still looking in our data base for foreign governments, but they're help is sketchy at best.**

"**Then the last, but certainly not the least, is the question we couldn't resist in finding out about Miss Smyth is her notes. No one can read them. Augustine thinks that she has the answers to creating super drugs from simple hypnotics to more deadly mind-altering amnesiacs."**

"**And this device you just implanted can help you control her enough to do your bidding? What I've seen from her so far, is that she is resistant in telling anyone anything. Augustine couldn't even get her to admit that she knew a different language other than English."**

"**True, but with our medication and sweet nothings in her ear, I'm sure we can persuade her to be more forthcoming."**

**Before, he could say anymore, a thunderous crash came from down below in the operating suite as an IV bottle smashed to the floor. **

**Lane had started to awaken from the sedative and began to lash out. In a daze, she grabbed out at the hands that were holding her down and skillfully swung off the table, twisting the nurse's arm to her back and a sharp snap was heard. **

**Using the wounded, screaming nurse as a shield, Lexi tried to back out of the room by the door. All the while spitting out threats in Russian and German and to stay back or the nurse and everyone in the room would die.**

**Before Lane could get through the door, it opened from behind her and the same large THRUSH agent from the van shot her with a dart from his gun. She fell back, causing the nurse to fall on top of her.**

**Kuryakin took this chance to try to back up from the window, but was grabbed by the arm and gun barrel was place at his temple by Davis.**

"**Well, that just proves that she is more than meets the eye, yes, Mr. Kuryakin." Davis said to him as he watched them carry her out into the hall. "I do believe that was Russian, was it not?"**

"**Could have been that or German," Kuryakin said and stood very still.**

"**Now that we have her restrained again, I do believe that it is you turn to go next, but I don't think that we will sedate you after her performance. If you are very cooperative, I may let them give you some local anesthesia. This way…"**

"**You are too kind."**

"**Open Channel D. Overseas Relay."**

"**Channel D open."**

"**Get me Napoleon Solo, this is April Dancer."**

"**Solo here. April, what do you and Mark have to report. Your flight should be boarding."**

"**Yes, we were about to leave when we caught a glimpse of Fellows's fiancée, Wallace, arriving at the airport from a New York flight. I can't believe that she's wearing that God-awful ring with pearls! Do you want us to intercept her? I bet she knows where Illya is being kept."**

"**You mean Illya and Lexi."  
"Hey! I thought that only he was to be captured. She just started and she's already in the field? Illya said that she was mostly going to be in the lab. Man, she's already started by jumping in the water with both feet first."**

"**April, I think she has been playing these games a lot longer than any of us knows. Don't intercept Wallace. See if she takes you and Mark to where they are keeping Fellows. Then, you can bring her in to find out where Illya and Lexi are. Keep me up to date. Don't lose her and get London headquarters to help you destroy their operations there. I'm working on finding our friends here. Good job, Solo out"**

"**Sure thing, Napoleon, Dancer out."**

**Solo clicked of the communication switch off and looked back down at Alexana Kuryakin's KGB file and it was giving him a pain in the neck. He'd to stop reading the notes several times and pull out UNCLE"S Russian dictionary to help him translate some of the words. He was trying to understand its subtle information despite his limited knowledge of the Russian language.**

"**Enough!" Solo growled as he snapped another switch. "Get me someone from translations."**

"**Translations here, Mr. Solo."**

"**I need someone fluent in Russian to my office."**

"**Russian, sir, is Mr. Kuryakin gone on assignment?"**

"**Yes he is. Who is available?"**

"**Kara will be there shortly. She knows the way."**

"**Yes, I know she does. Thank you." Napoleon set the phone down and tired to squelch some of his nervousness by getting up and brewing another pot of strong coffee. **

**After about ten minutes, there was a knock on Solo's office door. He got up and opened the door.**

"**Kara, come in and close the door."**

"**Napoleon, I haven't seen or heard from you for awhile. I really enjoyed our date together. All you had to is call me for…"**

"**I wish it was about a date, Kara. I have been remiss in calling you again, I'm sorry. We'll have to plan something soon, but what I really need is your expertise in reading Russian and its subtle meanings. I have a highly classified file here that can't be translated through normal channels. Can I trust you to be sworn to secrecy? **

"**Of course you can."**

"**Good, I knew I could. I've made some coffee, here have a cup and we'll get started."**

**As they sat down as Solo desk, Kara opened the file's package, read the cover, and lifted her head in surprise to him.**

"**Alexana Sonja Kuryakin? Related to our Mr. Kuryakin?"**

"**In a very special way, that is why this has to be at our top security level. Don't think, just read."**

"**This is a KGB file."**

"**Yes, I know. Now, please read."**

**As Kara read, Napoleon listened to a brief history of Lexi's life. Her birthday, that she moved to and lived in Kiev with her parents until her father was killed by the German Nazis, and her mother and she were sent to a concentration camp toward the end of the war, the same one as Illya. After that, time was spent back in Kiev at state run schools and summers with a special youth group. Lexi was placed on an advanced educational track toward the science, jumping several grade levels while receiving several medals of merit in science, gymnastics, target shooting, survival training, and learning several languages.**

"**Waverly was right."**

"**Right, Napoleon?"**

"**Oh, that she and Illya had the best training her father could give them."**

"**Father, I thought he was dead?" **

"**Her adoptive father, go on please."**

**Solo noted that what he remembered from Illya's file is that he and Lexi were in Paris around the same dates, but he was at the University for quantum mechanics whereas she was assigned as a courtesan for the Russian Embassy. Again, the file listed several accomplished training sessions geared at manipulation and human behavior. A note of approval was given to her to go to Cambridge and complete her PhD in chemistry that had largely been accomplished by correspondence through proper channels in the Soviet Union. The rest of her education was sketchy as she was called into service with the KGB and stationed at many posts where her assignments had been listed along with a kill rate that took up the next two pages.**

**The last page of the written file was their evaluation of Lexi's skills was as a senior officer in the United States. The KGB's goals and expectations for her to stay at her current assignment as lead investigator. There were noted concerns of her getting too comfortable in living in New York and that reassignment would be likely as well with the reassessment of her under used achievements in formula development that could become a vital part of the Soviet Union's chemical warfare arsenal.**

"**Wow, no wonder Lexi didn't want to stay in the KGB." Solo whistled softly, sitting back up in his chair and unlaced his hands from the back of his head.**

"**This isn't the same "Lexi" that brought us all sandwiches that one day?"**

"**Kara, you're as smart as you look beautiful, but I can't confirm or deny it. All I can say that this is all confidential. It could hurt a lot of people if this became common knowledge."**

"**I know, Napoleon. You've told me a dozen of times already."**

**Solo smiled sheepishly as she rolled her eyes at him.**

"**There still isn't anything in there to tell me what she meant by 'file: 41837."**

"**The only other thing in here is markings on a medical template of a body showing hand written comments to where scars, wounds, broken bones, and homing devices were implanted…"**

"**Wait! Hand me that sheet."**

"**What?"**

**Solo traced each mark on the page on the template and then he spotted it. An older electronic tracking device connected to al bone by a plate and screws that could have easily been bypassed on quick inspection. It was located inside her right shoulder blade. The handwritten note said was "tracking, date."**

"**Damn, so close, but I don't know if it still works or its frequency."**

"**What works?"**

"**There is a tracking device right here; attached to her shoulder, but I don't know its frequency. I can assume it's the 41837 number, but I'm hoping to be one hundred percent sure because it's such an odd frequency. No one uses it anymore. All it says is date."**

"**Napoleon, did you notice that the frequency matches her birthday? Odd, Now, I remember! Once, while I was reading a history report on the KGB and that some of its operatives used tracking devices encoded with their birthday as the frequency to better identify them when they were found dead. The batteries were to have lasted sometimes up to thirty years."**

"**That is exactly what I needed to know." Solo stood up in excitement, grabbed Kara, gave her a big kiss on the cheek, and run out the door with Lexi's file in his hand.**

"**You are welcome, Napoleon. Call me soon."**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

**Kuryakin felt slightly woozy after having endured the surgery to place Augustine's device in and on his head. Still in handcuffs, he was led back to the room he started in. This time, Lane was in the other bed, restrained and not looking very happy. It reminded him of when she was in UNCLE's infirmary.**

**He was released from the handcuffs just long enough to be placed in the other bed and then restrained again to prevent much movement. Davis came into the room, nodded to the both of them, and began to look at the charts one at a time.**

"**Mr. Kuryakin, you behaved very well during your procedure."**

"**It is easy when I was handcuffed, restrained, and have a gun pointed to my chest at all times. You're not very trusting."**

**Davis just smiled darkly, eyeing him over his glasses, and then turned to Lane. **

"**We'll start the next step first with Miss Smyth, so you can see how she reacts initially and how effective it is. The reaction happens rather quickly and then we introduce a suggestive voice that will be the only one the subject will follow from then on. Most intriguing don't you think?"**

"**Is it not rude to talk about Miss Smyth while she is in the room with us?" Kuryakin asked as he flicked a quick glance towards her, wanting to hear Lexi talk to know if she was okay or at least give him a signal. Her eyes didn't move as she intently focused on restraints that held her ankles.**

"**Our Miss Smyth doesn't seem to be in the mood to talk or look at anyone since her awkward wake up after her procedure. Quite the reversal from the forum don't you say? Even you barely got a look, Mr. Kuryakin, when they brought you back for your surgery."**

**On that last comment, Professor Augustine came through the door. He'd changed from the scrubs that he had on in the operating room to a basic suit and dirty lab coat.**

"**Professor, perfect timing as always, I was just about to say it was time to get started. Do you have the drug with you?"**

"**I want to check the devices first and yes, I have it with me. Hopefully, by tomorrow, with luck, I can get Miss Smyth here to whip up another batch with me. I'd like to see how she performs in the lab. Then she can show me what other kind of goodies are in that unique brain of hers and Mr. Kuryakin's."**

**First, Augustine went to Kuryakin's side and turned his head gently as he looked at the reservoir and stitches. He nodded happily and then walked over to Lane's bed. She didn't move her eyes or head as he came close to her side.**

"**My dear?" **

**Augustine asked pleasantly as he tried to turn her head, but she flinched from his touch and turned it even further away and downward. Finally, he had to firmly take a hold her jaw to turn it where he wanted it. She pulled at her restraints and hissed out from his fingers digging into her skin and the back of her neck.**

"**Yes, a little tender from your attempted escape? Some slight swelling, but nothing to stop us from giving her the medication." **

**He then pulled her head back even further to look her in the eyes, without letting go of her head. A blush started to rise in her cheeks.**

"**I see there's still some of the tranquilizer's effect in her system, but no matter. We will all be great friends soon."**

**Illya could see that Lexi wanted to scream out a barrage of colorful and well deserving words at him when he released her, but dryly swallowed them instead. Augustine merely chuckled to himself as he stood where he was, pulled out a vial of dark purple medicine out of pocket, shook it, and drew it up in a syringe.**

"**It's purple with ionic markers so we can trace it on x-ray. At least in the first dose or two we give you." **

**Augustine simply informed the test subjects and then he waved for two male orderlies to come closer. His eyes focusing intensely on the syringe to draw up just the right amount of fluid and repeated this action with a second syringe. He then pulled out two devices that looked like small remotes out of his lab pocket; checked the numbers on the dials. He gave one to Davis and repocketed the second one.**

"**Hold her head and shoulders!"**

**Lane struggled, but lost. She barely could see the syringe out of the corner of her eye and felt the cold wipe of alcohol on her ear lobe by the port of the reservoir. The pressure from the syringe being injected into the port hit a tender spot, causing her to jump involuntarily.**

**The medicine filled the reservoir in less the twenty seconds and the needle removed. The orderlies release their hold on Lane and everyone waited, watching for any sign of change.**

**Slowly, as Lexi had stayed in the same position where she had been released by the orderlies, her eyes started to close and her face become pale as she began to tremble. She pulled on her restraints while she twisted slowly to her side and then straightened out.**

**Augustine watched with fascination, standing by her bed and then leaned in close to her ear. "Are you able to hear me?"**

**Lexi nodded, but didn't open her eyes.**

"**Open your eyes."**

**She opened her eyes, straightforward and unfocused. Her face was drawn as if she was trying to figure out the thoughts inside of her head.**

"**You'll listen only to my voice and obey. Do you understand?"**

**Lane nodded, but didn't say a word.**

"**Now, my angel, what is your real name?"**

"…**Janice…Smyth."**

"**It can't be, Janice Smyth doesn't exist," Davis said in startled confusion.**

"**Let's try something that she may know." Augustine shrugged at the surprise answer Lexi gave. "State for me the first chemical formula you learned."**

**The female UNCLE agent stated what they wanted to hear in a bare whisper. It was the formula to make Morphine for the Nazis. She helped her mother mix in the concentration camp. The only thing was it was stated all in a mix of Russian and German.**

**Davis and Augustine looked at each other before looking over to a smug Section Two agent. They didn't know Russian or German and the only one who did, wasn't going to help them as him watched in rigid fascination.**

"**Get an interpreter up here that speaks Russian. We might need it for Kuryakin as well."**

"**Yes, sir."**

"**Well, while we try to figure this out, I suggest that we now start with you, Mr. Kuryakin." Green walked up to him and took the second syringe from Augustine. "You're mine to control. Hold him down."**

"**If it didn't work on her, why do you think it's going to work on me?"**

"**Oh, it's working on chickadee over there. We just have to find a way for us to understand her. Isn't very odd that she has many similar qualities that you have and that her first language is Russian? The spy world is a small place, especially in the Soviet Union. I know you're aquatinted with her."**

"**I told you that's classified and I'm going to kill you."**

**Kuryakin promised intently. He was held still by two bulky orderlies; one roughly held his shoulders down. The other one pulled his head back by grabbing his light blond hair back to expose the side of his head that the port was on. **

**Davis moved forward, jabbing the needle home and filled the reservoir. Finally, Illya felt the syringe being pulled out of the port, Davis stepped back to closely watch his reaction.**

**As the orderlies released him, he could feel an itching start behind his eyes and squeezed them shut. His hearing became muffled while the usual whirling of thoughts and ideas in his mind started to slow down. Kuryakin felt as if he was swimming in heavy water. His lips were dry and he shivered as he tried to focus on what he was currently thinking.**

**He smiled inwardly, after several years of working for UNCLE, his system had gotten used to the vast array of THRUSH brain washing drugs which Lexi and Fellows had not. He hoped that this drug would be the same, except for the blinding headaches at the end.**

"**Mr. Kuryakin? Open your eyes and tell me your name and UNCLE identification."**

**Davis' voice registered in his head and he was pulled to do what the voice wanted.**

"**Illya Kuryakin, Section Two, Number Two," Illya repeat in his usual basic response.**

"**Do you know who is in the bed next to you?"**

"**Yes."**

"**What is her name?"**

**Again, Illya could feel the pull to tell Davis who Lexi was, but he still was able maintain control over his thoughts.**

"**Hmmm…"**

"**Don't worry, Mr. Kuryakin. It will come to you. Now it is time for you to rest and eat. You did very well for the first day. Tomorrow, it will be easier after your second dose."**

**Augustine had stayed by Lane during this time talking to her softly and sweetly. Encouraging her to talk to him, but all he could get was a mixture of foreign languages and her insistence that her name was Janice Smyth. He stroked her cheek and held her hand.**

**Lexi didn't return his tenderness and trembled as he leaned over her bed.**

"**Professor, tell her to eat and get some rest for tonight. We'll have her go to the lab tomorrow and hopefully by then, Cryptology has a better understanding of her notes or maybe we can find a way to get her to speak enough English to tell us herself."**

**Augustine whispered words to his new puppet that only she could hear and she slowly nodded, but didn't say a word. Her eyes stayed hauntingly blank as they tracked him out of the room when he left with Davis.**

**After the two men left, all that remained was an orderly who was bringing trays of food to place in front of Kuryakin and Lane. One wrist was released for them to eat only when a second orderly came into the room holding a gun.**

**Illya looked at the food and cringed. He hated hospital food and pushed it away even though his stomach was growling. All he could tolerate at the moment was a drink of water. He looked up at the monitors to see that the red light was on and knew that they were being constantly being monitored.**

**After awhile, he looked over to Lexi and tried to talk to her in Russian to ask if she was well, but she didn't respond. He tried to get her attention by greeting her in German. Still no response to anything he tried.**

**Illya didn't want to give up any information about Lexi to Augustine or Davis by saying too much, but he needed her to respond.**

"**I see that you are not eating? Aren't you hungry? Can I have it?" He finally asked in English.**

**She looked back over at him and smiled dully, but she didn't say a word and closed her eyes as she began to tremble slightly.**

"**Miss Smyth! Janice!" Illya shouted and Lexi popped her eyes open. "Eat! You were told to eat. The drug will be too strong for you if you don't eat. I know that you haven't eaten since lunch and that was only half a sandwich. Eat! Please."**

"**I do not want to obey him. Do not make me go with him..."**

"**No, Janice!" Illya whispered harshly, but she just turned her head and didn't respond any more.**

"**Mr. Solo, anything to report about Mr. Kuryakin and Miss Lane?"**

**Solo sat down at the table with coffee in his hand.**

"**I figured out that Lexi wanted to let us know about the old tracking device that was placed by the KGB, its frequency, and I hope that the battery still works. We've teams spread over New York trying to find out where they might be."**

"**And Miss Dancer and Mr. Slate, how are they doing in London?"**

"**They have followed Wallace to a small THRUSH facility. We believe that Fellows is there. It appears that they are packing up to go somewhere in the next day or two."**

"**Interesting, keep a watchful eye on them and see where they go. Hopefully it's back here and to Professor Augustine or THRUSH."**

"**Yes, sir."**

**Illya woke up the next morning more tired than when he started the night before. He couldn't sleep because of his concern for Lexi. She refused to look or talk to him every time he tried and was fighting the dullness the medication made in his mind. He was still able to override the feelings to obey Davis's order to eat and rest, but it was hard. Being restrained in the same position for hours didn't help his feelings of helplessness.**

**Breakfast was handled like the meal the night before. This time, Kuryakin ate some of his food to settle his aching stomach, but it wasn't very appetizing to him. Most of the time, he waited and watched her from the corner of his eye.**

**She just lay quietly on the bed with her head still turned away from Illya, staring blankly at the far wall. The only time she moved was to flinch when the orderlies brought her food on a tray table and loosened one of her arms, but then she went back to staring at the opposite wall. **

**After about twenty minutes of the food lay mostly untouched, Davis and Augustine walked into the room. The doctor made a straight line to Lexi and started to remove the rest of her restraints.**

"**My dear, it's time for you to perform."**

**He treated her like someone mentally incapable of taking care of herself as she accepted this treatment without complaint. **

"**Good morning." Davis said as he chose to ignore Augustine's excitement. "From what I heard about last night and this morning, neither of you are eating very well. I'd hoped for better. I have to warn you two, that I'll take matters into my own hands to keep you healthy."**

"**You try eating this slop! Where is he taking her?"**

**Augustine had pulled Lexi off the bed and helped her stand. He spun her in front of him and pulled her hair back to expose the port of the reservoir as he wrapped his arm around her neck. Daftly, he plunged in the syringe with the medicine and refilled the device.**

**The only reaction that came out of her was a quick intake of breath, falling back into him.**

"**The Professor is going to test out his theory that our chickadee here is who he thinks she is. Care to join them before we have our own little talk about UNCLE?"**

"**I haven't got anything else to do this morning."**

"**Then it's settled, Mr. Kuryakin, but first, I have to give you a dose of medicine. I think that we need to increase your amount though, you're far too rebellious this morning and I'm afraid that you'll have to be handcuffed as well; far too clever for your own good."**

"**I've been told that before." Illya cringed as the medicine was injected into the port while the orderlies held him down.**

"**I'm sure you have, Mr. Kuryakin, but be warned, that I won't be as tolerant of your silences today. You'll either tell us what we want and help us with chickadee here or there will be dire consequences."**

**Illya started to feel the itching behind his eyes again grow even stronger than last night. Davis' voice drew Illya to him. The weighted water he was swimming in before now felt like Jell-O.**

"**Mr. Kuryakin? You will help me, won't you?"**

"**Da."**

"**English, please."**

"…**Yes."**

"**Excellent, now on to the lab."**

**Once in the Chemistry lab, Augustine placed Lane by the one of the tables and opened her notebook in front of her. She looked down, but didn't say or do anything as her hands trembled at her sides. **

**Davis and Kuryakin stood at the far end of the table and watched her. He was handcuffed as Davis had promised. There were a couple of other people in the room, two THRUSH guards, a lab tech, and a Russian interpreter. **

"**I want you to read your notes."**

**Augustine talked softly into Lexi's ear as he stood right behind her with his hand on the back of her neck. She paused for a moment and then slowly started to read her notes out loud, but in a mixed language that only her and Illya new.**

**Davis looked to the interpreter who only shrugged and shook his head in confusion. He then looked to the blond agent and then back at the doctor's new pet.**

"**Mr. Kuryakin, you said yesterday that you knew Miss Smyth. Where do you know her from?"**

**He hesitated as he tried to control the voice in his head wanting him to answer.**

"**I'm going to add a little incentive." Davis pulled out his gun and leveled it at Lane. "Where do you know her from?"**

"**From a German concentration camp when we were children. We worked in the lab mixing medications for her mother until the Nazis were defeated."**

"**See. Ask the right questions and you get the correct answers."**

"**Is she Janice Smyth?**

"**Yes."**

"**Do you know what language she's speaking?"**

"**Yes."**

"**I want you to ask her to read her notes out loud in English."**

**Illya moved closer to Lexi so he could talk to her softly. Augustine looked suspiciously at him as if he was going to lose control over her to the pompous UNCLE agent.**

**While he talked, her eyes closed for a moment and she tilted her head toward him. Her hands began to still ever so slightly and then she opened her eyes.**

**In a quivering, weak voice, Lane read her notes in English without infliction, but in a strong Russian accent. Augustine had been right in that they contained colorful comments on what was going on around her in the lecture hall and made commentaries on all of the scientists in the room, including the professor standing next to her. She thought he was a vulgar, no talent chemist that stole from others, and most of his formulas were pathetic. Hers were far superior.**

**The young woman began to state the rules of a game she was inventing that took the formulas on the overhead, improved them, and rated them compared to hers. The Professor's skills were antiquated and inferior.**

**Augustine became infuriated as Davis stared in awe at first and then started to laugh at the shocking euphemisms that peppered her notes. Before she could finish reading her notes, Augustine turned her around by her shoulders, shook her hard, and then slapped her forcibly on both of her cheeks. **

**Kuryakin started to take a step closer to Augustine, but was stopped by Davis taking a hold of his arm and pulled him back to where he stood. All he could was to clinch his fists that were locked behind his back as Davis kept a firm grip on his gun close to Kuryakin's side.**

**Lexi fell to her knees, still in a daze. Then Augustine roughly grabbed her by the arms and pulled up in front of him to glare at her.**

"**You little, bitch! You will pay for your insolence!"**

**She just stared at him blankly.**

"**Professor! Put her down. You wanted to know what was in her notes and now you have. I can't help it that she doesn't think much of you and your formulas. What we do know it that Fellows was right about this little chickadee."**

"**Now, she needs to prove what her notes have said." Augustine grumbled, but let go of Lexi as she swayed unsteadily under her own weight. "I want you to make one of your formulas right now."**

**Lane looked up with far away eyes at Augustine and then to Kuryakin.**

"**Ah, Professor, another blow to your over inflated ego and your formula. I do believe that Miss Smyth prefers to listen to Mr. Kuryakin than you. This is all quite interesting change."**

**In shock and blinded anger, Augustine set down the reeling agent, ready to strike her again.**

"**In fact, I do think that THRUSH Central won't have much need for you either Professor, if you can't get her to follow your orders without beating her to death. Let's hope she can improve on your, what did she call them, antiquated, and stolen formulas?" **

**Augustine looked up from Lane to Davis. Without looking, Lexi simply put out her hand for Davis' gun and he gave it to her on a whim. She then turned back to Augustine, aimed with a hard smile, and shot him in the chest. Then in quick succession, she turned around and shot the guards and lab tech in less than two seconds.**

**Before she could finish turning towards Davis and a shot quizzed by his shoulder, he had another gun out, shot her in the arm and she fell on top of Augustine in a heap. He then pointed the gun at Kuryakin's chest while his hand still firmly gripped his arm. An alarm rang out and two guards entered the lab with their guns raised.**

"**Don't try anything, Kuryakin or you won't live to regret it and neither will she."**

**Davis shoved him over to the end of the table to look at Lane laying face down on the tiled floor.**

"**Well, she sure is a piece of work!" Davis said angrily as he waved the guards towards Lexi and her bleeding arm. "He's going to get his revenge on her for tranquilizing him at point blank range and the others won't be too happy either. What she did was professional. Where did she learn to shoot like that, Mr. Kuryakin?"**

**Kuryakin closed his eyes as he tried not answer, but couldn't help it.**

"…**KGB."**

"**I'll have to keep that in mind. Not so much an innocent bystander as we thought. We'll get her arm taken care of so she can come back later and mix something up. I am growing short of time and patience with her. You, Mr. Kuryakin are to come with me. I want a list of what UNCLE's research and development projects they are working on."**

"**Channel D open, Solo here."**

"**Napoleon, its April. How goes the hunt?"**

"**Not much has changed here. No sign of them in New York proper, we've started to canvass the areas around the city. How is it going on your end?"**

"**We followed Wallace to a warehouse south of London and we think that Fellows was there and she picked him up. Looks like they staying in a hotel by the airport and are planning to fly out tonight. Mark is checking with the airlines to see if it's a private flight or commercial. The London branch has quietly taken the warehouse and those in it captive. We don't know if any warnings got sent out or not. Wallace hasn't seemed to notice that she is being watched at this point."**

"**Good, keep it that way. How does Fellows look?"**

"**Kind of funny actually, he's got a dazed look about him and only seems talk to Wallace. Weird, huh?"**

"**Yeah, weird. Thanks, April. Keep in touch when you and Mark find out more at the airport. Solo, out."**

**As the day wore on, Kuryakin's mind began to clear a little more with every passing hour, even with the increased dose of medicine. His trained mind automatically answered Davis' questions without truly giving him vital UNCLE information. Davis seemed satisfied with what he was telling him and started to relax his guard a little.**

**Kuryakin even had to begrudge him a certain level of respect for how tightly controlled the security was around him and partner in this assignment. That made his job harder, but not unmanageable. Now that the antidote that Lexi had given the night before last night had finally started to kick in, he needed to get to the lab to find out what they have to work with to destroy it. **

"**Hopefully, Lexi," Illya said to himself. "You and I can find something to whip up a good bomb in a short amount of time. Napoleon should be close to finding us by now."**

"**Mr. Kuryakin." Davis said pleasantly as he walked back into the office where the UNCLE agent was handcuffed to the chair. "You've done well. I think that we should check on Miss Smyth. See if she has started to make one of her formulas for us. The bullet just grazed her arm and we pumped her full of glucose to improve her energy stores. The dose she was given was too strong for her to function properly. She's much more receptive in following orders now."**

"**Yes, sir."**

**Davis unlocked the handcuffs from the chair and cuffed Kuryakin's hand in front of him, but hadn't bothered to have an extra guard on him. He noticed the simple change in Davis' level of trust and inwardly smiled at that error in judgment.**

**In the lab, Illya noticed a big difference in Lexi's behavior. She was busily making a formula in her usual fashion. Her concentration was so intense, that she didn't notice them coming into the room. Her hands weren't restrained, but he did notice that she had been cuffed round an ankle as it scrapped noisily over the cement floor.**

**As she tried to walk away from the table to the exhaust chamber with a couple of beakers, when she came to the end of the chain and tugged at it angrily.**

"**I need to use the hood." Lexi sighed in frustration to no one in particular. **

**She set the beakers down on the table, grabbed a loose wire, bent it, unlocked her handcuff with amazing skill, picked up the beakers, and proceeded to the exhaust chamber without even worrying that that the guards in the room drew their guns and pointed them at her.**

**After she was done under the vacuum hood, she went back to the table and continued on mixing chemicals together.**

"**Well, Augustine, I see that things are going much smoother now. How soon before it is done?"**

"**I would think shortly." He said, watching her like a hawk, trying to learn her processes to formula making. He attempted to pick up a flask and Lane slapped his hand away, reached for a syringe, filled it, and presented it him.**

"**Ready." Lexi looked around, pointed to the interpreter in the room, and motioned him forward. **

**Swallowing hard, the nervous man came forward and pulled up his sleeve. With the precision of a medical doctor, Lexi injected a small amount of her drug just under the skin and covered the spot with a cotton ball.**

"**Five, four, three, two, and one."**

**After the countdown, she drew the dazed man closed to her and whispered in his ear softly in Russian. He just stared forward as he listened and then slightly nodded as she moved away from him with a smug smile.**

**The interpreter stood up straight, pulled his shoulders back, and started to sing his favorite song loudly and rather poorly in Russian. Davis, Augustine, and the guards watched in amazement and tried to talk to the man to see if he would stop, but he didn't waver a single note or phrase even when he was ordered to stop.**

**Kuryakin took this time to look around the room to find out where certain chemicals and storage cupboards were. He also looked at Lexi to see her already setting up to mix up another formula, oblivious to his searching stare.**

"**How long does this last?"**

"**About five minutes," she answered plainly to no one in particular.**

"**What will he remember?"**

"**Not much. I want to see your notes on your formula. I'll to make it better and an antidote."**

"**An antidote, that quickly?" Davis asked in surprise and he turned from the singing interpreter to the female chemist while she continued to look at Augustine as if Davis hadn't spoken at all.**

"**An antidote, my dear?"**

"**I always make an antidote specific to the drugs I make to prevent from being used on the wrong person or an overdose. Don't you?"**

"**Well…no, I don't. I think that you should just mix up the formula as I dictate to you. Let me worry about the antidote."**

"**Fool!" Lexi shook her head, shrugged, and just put her hand up again for the formula**

"**Not so fast." Davis cut in as he thought about it. The interpreter had stopped singing and looked around, wondering why he was singing. "Could this help Fellows?"**

"**I don't know." Augustine rubbed the back of his head with his huge hand as if to release the tension and frustration at Lane's relative ease caused in designing powerful hypnotics. **

"**We could continue to use him if it works..."**

**Lexi waited impatiently for Augustine to give her the formula with her hand still raised.**

"**Very well," He shrugged and handed her the sheet with his formula and notes on it. "Make the drug and its antidote, Miss Smyth. How long will it take you?"**

**Lane looked at the formula and laughed at it. Augustine started to get angry, grabbed her hurt arm tightly, and pulled her up to him.**

"**Do you have any idea how long it took for me to develop that formula?"**

**Lexi looked at Augustine blankly as she waited him to finish his own question while trying to ignore the intense pain he was causing her. **

"**Four hours."**

"**What!"**

"**Four hours to make it better and the antidote."**

**Augustine stared down at her in pure hatred for her natural abilities as he pushed her into the table with a crash of glass falling to the floor.**

"**I'll need to see the device up close" Lane pointed to her head once she gained her footing.**

"**Why?" Davis asked, watching the Professor try to control his anger by turning from his tormentor, this idiot savant.**

"**To calculate total volume versus concentration to avoid overdose."**

"**Look at his."**

**Augustine pointed to Kuryakin with a backward wave of his hand. He wasn't quite sure if he should believe her in what she said she could do. Kuryakin looked to Davis, who gave his permission for her to proceed as well. He nodded; Illya moved closer to Lexi and let her look at the device screwed to the side of his head.**

**Lexi leaned forward enough to touch the device at its reservoir and trace some of the tubing that was sutured down. Illya felt the slightest tug and pinch,**

"**How many milliliters to fill the reservoir?"**

"**Twenty to twenty-five."**

"**Flow rate?"**

"**0. 6mls per hour."**

"**Do you increase or decrease doses by concentration or dial adjustment?"**

"**Remote controlled dial adjustment."**

"**Thank you. That's all I need."**

**Lexi went back to the task of setting up the table to start her work, totally ignoring everyone in the room and Augustine's notes as she threw them ruthlessly into the trash.**

"**I will take Mr. Kuryakin with me. Dr. Augustine, make sure she eats and gets some rest when she's done. I don't want a repeat of this morning." **

**Solo met Dancer and Slate at the airport just as their plane had landed in New York. They'd followed Julie Wallace and Nigel Fellows from London.**

"**Hey beautiful," Solo said pleasantly to one of his favorite female UNCLE agents.**

"**Napoleon, I didn't know you thought I was good looking?"**

"**Well, you know how I like my agents, Mark."**

"**Do you two need a room or can we get back to business?" April jumped in with a tired sigh. "I have been sitting in an airplane for hours and need a bath."**

"**Sorry, April. I'll tail our target while you take some time off."**

"**Thanks, Mark. You're the best partner ever."**

"**Speaking of partners, Napoleon," Slate asked as they walked several yards behind their target. "Find Illya or Lexi yet?"**

"**No, I was hoping that your little Thrushies would point the way. I haven't been able to locate the tracking device that Lexi has in her. My guess is that you have to be within the same building to use it. Have they noticed they are being followed?"**

"**I don't think so. I know that they called in just before they left for the airport."**

"**And how is Fellows acting?"**

"**The same, zombeeish appearance. Same as at the hotel lobby if you ask me."**

"**Mark, you'll find out where they go and report back to UNCLE. Then we will organize an invasion party with plenty of explosives. Illya'll like that even if he can't set them himself. April, freshen up and be ready to go to the bombing party. You've a few hours while Mark and I follow them."**

"**Thanks, Napoleon. I won't forget this."**

**April gave him a quick kiss as she grabbed her bag and headed home to shower and change.**

"**Don't forget the marshmallows."**

"**Yes, thanks Napoleon, she would've been a bear if she couldn't have a chance to get cleaned up. She had the last watch and can be rather surly if she feels tired and unclean."**

"**You sound as if you have had that happen before?"**

"**Several times, but I wouldn't have it any other way. There's something about working with a female agent that's never dull."**

"**Yes…" Napoleon said softly to Mark as he wondered if Illya would agree from previous experience. This train of thought made him nervous. Would Illya prefer Lexi to him as a partner? Maybe Waverly was testing them again to see just how far each of them would go or is she going to be able to float between them as needed? He shook his head to clear his thoughts as he watched Mark leave in a UNCLE taxi to follow Wallace and Fellows.**

**Illya had spent the rest of the late afternoon and evening with Davis walking through the rest of the different lab sections within the building. One particularly interesting lab was the mechanical gadgetry department. He couldn't help himself and readjusted the timing of an experimental tracking device's frequency strength. He'd read about this model just last week in one of his journals. He hadn't had a chance to start to develop his own one yet.**

**They had shared a meal and a one-side conversation about Davis' plans for the UNCLE agent, the capture chemist, and possible cure for Fellows. But, sadly, Davis said that he could only keep him for a short time before THRUSH Central would want him at headquarters.**

**That let Illya know that this lab wasn't in THRUSH'S New York headquarters and that Davis was working on his own before telling THRUSH Central about this experiment in full detail. It was smart of him to kidnap them and start conditioning them first. This would lessen the risks to Central and their organization from attack. That way Davis could get one more step higher on the career ladder at THRUSH.**

**Illya had to be patient. There was several times where he would've liked to speak his mind, laugh at Lexi's rudeness, or be able to eat a proper meal. He hated to eat the food in front of him, but he choked it down without so much as a comment or show of disgust on his face. **

**There was not much for Illya to do after he was "tucked in" his bed and restrained other than to stare at the red light on the camera focused on him. Lexi wasn't back from the lab yet. It was getting late and her bed was empty. This concerned him greatly.**

**Suddenly the door slammed open with Augustine dragging the female agent by her arm and throwing to the floor by her bed. She was smart enough to stay where she was on the floor. Her lip was split and bleeding. A black eye was beginning to take shape on the right side. Her clothes were in disarray with other noticeable bruises showing through. The final thing that he saw was that her arm wound was bleeding again.**

"**Clean her up and get her to bed!" Augustine spatted angrily out to the orderly that had come in from the observation room and walked away.**

**As the orderly started to help Lexi to her feet, she gave him a slight smile, pointed up with her index finger, and then brought it down to pantomime the professor's lack of sexual ability. She groaned out lightly in pain as she let the aide lift her up and lead to the bathroom.**

**Kuryakin's eyes widened with merriment from her sign language about the doctor's inability to perform, after he knew that she was relatively in good health despite the continual abuse from Augustine. He wished that he could be more help, but Napoleon and he knew that Lexi needed to draw their attention away from him by taking center stage in this mission.**

**April Dancer walked into UNCLE headquarters feeling more like herself. She was still tired, but felt better. Luckily, she and Mark had slept on the plane, because she knew there would be no sleep tonight.**

**After a quick stop at her desk, she went to Mr. Waverly's office with a cup of hot coffee in her hands.**

"**Are you feeling better, Miss Dancer?"**

"**Yes, sir, thank you."**

"**What have you found out Mr. Solo?"**

"**Sir, Mr. Slate followed Wallace and Fellows to the warehouse district in south New Jersey by the docks. About forty miles north of here, he noticed several THRUSH employees and lab techs leave and enter from a hidden entrance on the back side of a three story building. As he got closer, he started to pick up faint noise on Miss Lane's tracking device."**

"**Plans, Mr. Solo?"**

"**Mr. Slate, Miss Dancer, and I will infiltrate the lab, find Mr. Kuryakin, Miss Lane, and Mr. Fellows, then blow up the building. I think that we should put our plan in action within the next three hours."**

"**Good, reinforcements?"**

"**Yes, we have Agents Dewall, Sauceda, Francis, and Yang from Section Three already in route and taking their positions in the neighborhood."**

"**Excellent, get to work, I want my agents back and that lab destroyed. Good luck."**

"**Yes, sir."**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five**

**Lane and the orderly walked out of the bathroom and he helped her to the bed, which she stiffly crawled into. The orderly attached her restraints and went to check on Kuryakin's, but instead of making sure they were tight, he loosened them enough for him to slip out of quite easily. He hid his surprise as he continued to blankly look up to the camera.**

**Then the orderly went back into the observation room. There was a scuffle in the room and the camera light switched off. The two UNCLE agents quickly jumped from their beds and ran into the observation room. The orderly under the influence of Lexi's drug had knocked the second one out and was holding a gun loosely in his hand, waiting for the next order.**

"**Wonderful job!" Lane praised the mindless man, gave Illya the gun, and went looking for another one. "Ah, here's the other one."**

"**Lexi, mine is a dart gun. What about yours?"**

"**Darts too."**

"**How did you get that syringe?" He asked as she held it up along with the gun.**

"**After you and Davis left, my mind started to clear while I was remixing that fool's formula. I could finally reason long enough to pocket the syringe I had used on the interpreter and placed it in my bandage. That pig, Augustine, almost found it when he started groping me and tried to have his way with me. I used part of it to convince him even further of his inabilities…"**

"**And when he wasn't able to perform?"**

"**He got mad enough to push me around a little more before bringing me back to you. The orderly was caught by surprise and easy pickings…"**

"**Good, now, let's get to the lab and start to make some our own fireworks!"**

"**Right behind you, just like when we were young. This is the part I miss very much."**

"**Yes, game time," Illya said with a warm memory in his heart, but then his thoughts caught up with him. **

**As he led the way, he shadowed a concerned look from Lexi. Remembering that their partnership had caused her more pain and suffering as she blindly rushed into danger to save him. It was the main reason that he was glad they were separated by the General. Another odd smile crossed his face as Illya was reminded of the conversation he and Napoleon had about his need to protect his partner to this very extent.**

**Illya and Lexi stopped at the door to the room they were in, cracked it open, looked around, and quietly stepped out into the darkness likes two cats on the prowl. Reaching the door to the lab, they were surprised that they had met only a few THRUSH guards. They had easily tranquilized them and tuck them into empty rooms on the way down the hall and to the lab.**

"**We need to get in there before Davis or Augustine finds out we're gone and can get those remotes."**

"**I need something to tie off the tubing or puncture the reservoir. I saw a least one paperclip…"**

**They stealthily crawled into the dark lab looked around the tabletops for anything to help them.**

"**Here! I found it," Lexi said barely above a whisper, bringing hand up to swipe across the table above them.**

**Lexi touched Illya's shoulder and pulled him close to her on the floor. Daftly, she broke the paperclip in two and threaded one end through the sutured tube by his head and twisted it tightly, hiding it in his hair.**

**Before he had a chance to use the other half of the paperclip on her, the lights in the room flashed on, temporarily blinding them.**

"**Mr. Kuryakin and Miss Smyth, I'm so glad that you two could join us." Davis said pleasantly as he waved his gun at them and two guards came up behind them and grabbed them. "I would've figured that you two would come back here if you were able to escape. I had sensors placed on your beds and it alerted me to your activities. I never did fully trusted Augustine's formula, especially on you Mr. Kuryakin."**

**Illya and Lexi stiffened as Davis came closer to them while the third guard handcuffed them to chains that hung from the rafters. Kuryakin winced in pain at the strength the guard used to secure the cuffs around his wrists. Lane made a small yelp of pain as well.**

"**Although, I was rather hoping for miracles and all of this would've gone more smoothly, I think that I need to inform you that I want more answers and I will use force to get it, but first, I want to thank Miss Smyth or whatever you want to call yourself for making that antidote. We brought Mr. Fellows back from England and tried some of the antidote on him just a little while ago and he's starting to come around."**

"**I guess, I'm supposed to say you're welcome," Lexi said smoothly, trying to balance herself on her tip toes to relieve some of the pressure of her weight pulling on her secured wrists.**

"**No, no, I want more than just courtesies from you, my dangerous chickadee."**

**Davis walked around Lexi as he spoke and traced one of his fingers over her up-stretched arms, shoulders, and back. She shivered to his touch as he came around to face her again. Her eyes cool as glass as they looked at him.**

"**When Mr. Kuryakin told me yesterday morning that you were KGB, I ran your prints through one of my personal friends in the Soviet Union and they say that you had recently died, Alexana Sonja Kuryakin. Cousin to UNCLE's Section Two, Number Two agent. What a very efficient KGB officer and assassin you were. I told my friend that they were old prints so he wouldn't be looking for you while you're working for THRUSH. No one there seem to know or care about your other special talents in making drugs until the very end. He told me that you were going to be sent back to work in the defense department if you had lived."**

"**Yes Comrade, THRUSH or the KGB, neither one isn't very appealing to me right now; one jail cell for another…" **

"**Oh, what we are offering you would not be a prison for you if we could only trust you, but there's another issue that causes the biggest problem, that problem in your cousin, Mr. Kuryakin. You two are almost mirror images of the same coin. I don't think that either one of you would want to work against the other. Would you, Mr. Kuryakin?"**

"**You just answered your own question, Davis. Why bother to tell us what we already know."**

"**True, but I think that you'll soon be given some incentives to encourage you from working for UNCLE, Mr. Kuryakin, before Mr. Waverly can fully recruit your cousin here."**

"**It's been tried before by more competent men than you and it's failed." Illya purposely sighed as he felt his fingers starting to become numb from the handcuffs and his arms tremble.**

"**I might as well try myself." Davis eyes flashed as he tried not to show his anger over infuriating man's comment. "I know where others have failed and I may have just found your weakness. But first, a little physical conditioning and then some more chemical persuasion provided by our little chickadee and cousin here. She'll prove to be a wonderful member of THRUSHES' lab section yet."**

**Davis turned from Kuryakin and back to Lane. Again, he traced his finger lightly on her face, over her cheek, down her nose, and touching her neck around the collar of her T-shirt. His fingers encircled the material and with a quick jerk, ripping it off her body, and leaving only a bra on her torso.**

**He nodded to one of the guards to remove Kuryakin's shirt as well while Davis studied Lane's body more closely.**

"**Hmmm…a bit slim for my taste, but I can see why Augustine wanted you so much. Don't worry, chickadee, he won't be around to hurt you anymore. Once he tucked you in your room, that slobbering drunk came to me, begging for me to let you be taken to his lab in London and of course, I said no. He tried to argue with me and lost. I'll be taking over for him and I will care of you properly."**

**Davis leaned in and lightly nipped at her ear as he ran his hands down the sides of her body.**

"**I look forward to you trying your best. More important men than you have tried and haven't had the stamina. Are you sure you can handle me?"**

**Davis just stepped back, smiled evilly, and picked up a riding crop.**

"**Wonderful, a challenge, no begging, crying, or sniveling. I look forward in breaking you almost as much as your cousin here." **

**Davis motioned one of the guards to take the bamboo rod and turned back around to give them the proper instructions, as he flexed the riding crop.**

"**Gentlemen, since we want this chickadee as one of us, along with her cousin, we must show a certain amount of restraint in the physical conditioning we're about to start. The skill is to cause a great deal of pain without actually breaking the skin or breaking essential bones to prevent permanent damage unless it is desired.**

"**Look, breaking the fingers, wrists, and ankles are fine if they are not need to perform their required duties, but that isn't an option in this case. Neither is whipping the soles of their feet to prevent running away right now, because we want them to walk to THRUSH Central. Once there, it might be a different issue. Tell me, where's the best place to strike the body in this case?"**

**None of the guards answered and Davis sighed in mild frustration.**

"**Mr. Kuryakin?"**

"**Over the torso, back, thighs, and upper arms…"**

"**Excellent, the marks are easily hidden by clothing and the occasional cracked rib is exceedingly painful, although puncturing a lung or the heart is a risk. Shall we show them, Mr. Kuryakin?"**

"**I prefer not, but if you insist," Illya remarked dryly.**

"**I do insist. Now gentlemen, each of you will show me how you would strike in those listed areas of the body on Mr. Kuryakin. Each of you will get three strikes."**

"**Sir and the girl?" One of the men leered at Lane as she hung by the chains.**

"**Yes, the girl." Davis stroked Lexi's abdomen with his riding crop and then pulled her chin up with it. "She is mine, but for teaching purposes, gentlemen; most the time you strike an attractive female where it can do the most damage, like the face, but since this chickadee will be working for us, my attention will be placed on the back, torso, hips, and thighs. Rape is a powerful tool, but I have a feeling that this one is immune to it. **

"**See, she's been already marked by couple of recent healing scars, my guess one of them was a gun shot from its pattern and if you look close, you can see the silvery pattern of whip marks. Because of this, I bet that this chickadee here has a highly advanced level of pain endurance. It'll take a lot of force to make her cry out like hitting her where she was shot."**

**Lexi just smiled and twisted around to the guard that was leering, motioned him to come close enough to her to swiftly kick him hard in the groin. The guard fell forward and she kicked him in the face. The other two guards backed up, but not before Illya was able to easily trip one of them as he came within striking distance. Davis stood up straighter and just laughed.**

"**Very good, that was a great demonstration in how not to be distracted by your own emotions, especially lust. You're lucky, given the right circumstances, she could've killed you without Kuryakin's help, but since there are too many of us, she just asked for more pain and torture. You two are definitely cousins."**

**Davis chuckled as he slashed out with the riding crop across Lane's right flank. She took a quick breath in, closed her eyes, and smiled defiantly as the mark began to bleed. **

"**Now, gentlemen, back to Mr. Kuryakin, who just has earned another round of strikes from each of you, but we must be quick about it. I've got transportation to THRUSH headquarters arranged within the half hour."**

**Mark Slate silently made his way through the hidden THRUSH building's first floor and was amazed how big this building actually encompassed. Most of rooms were used for storage. What was in the boxes, he couldn't tell and didn't have enough time to find out. It didn't matter, though; it was all going up in flames soon.**

**He smiled to himself as he set down another timed explosive from his bag while he walked the building's perimeter. There was enough wood and paper in here to keep it ablaze for hours.**

"**Open channel D, Napoleon, can you hear me?"**

"**Solo here, anything Mark?"**

"**No, I have been all over the first floor's outer rooms and not a sign. I'm going to start on the inner corridors. Most of my detonators are set for the top of the hour. Less than thirty minutes from now…"**

"**April and I are on the second floor and not have much luck either. Lexi's tracking device is pointing to the next set of rooms on the right. Set the rest of the charges and meet us up on the second floor by the main elevators. Solo out."**

**He sighed and waved April forward to the next set of rooms, watching for uninvited THRUSH soldiers. He was surprised only to have come across only a few guards, which they took care of quickly with a tranquilizing dart and hid them away.**

**Just as Solo and Dancer turned the next corner, they opened a door to a room that looked like a hospital room with an observation mirror on the side wall. It had two beds in it with four-point restraints that looked like previous occupants had left in a hurry.**

**Dancer looked into the observation room while Napoleon took a look in the bathroom and met April in back in the room.**

"**I found two darted guards sleeping soundly in there."**

"**No one in the bathroom, but I did see some blood on some tissues in the waste basket."**

"**Do you suppose this is where they were kept?"**

"**I don't know, could be. Let's keep going. We need to find them before the bombs go off. Let's go." Napoleon signaled his partner with the wave of his gun to leave the room.**

"**Right behind you, Napoleon."**

**Just as he pulled out his communicator, a sharp alarm rang out. He looked to April to see if she knew what had happened. All she did was to shrug her shoulder and mouth, "I don't know?"**

**Solo and Dancer barely had a chance to duck around a corner in the hallway, when two guards pushed through the door labeled "Lab 203" and rushed to the room two doors down where they had just been and then they noticed a gaunt man standing silently in the dark. His eyes were somewhat vacant as if he just had just woken up from a long sleep.**

"**Dr. Fellows, what are you doing out of your bed? We're going to come get you to take you on another trip in a car. Let's go back into your room, get you dress, and then take a walk to find Mr. Davis. He wants you to take a trip with him and some friends of his.**

"**A trip, will Julie come with us? Where is she? I haven't seen her for a long time…"**

"**Miss Wallace will meet us at headquarters. Come on, let's get you dress..."**

**The two men pulled Fellows back into the room, turned off the alarm, and got him ready.**

"**Open channel D. Mark, are you there?"**

"**Yes, Napoleon, just coming up to the second floor…"**

"**Change in plans, Davis is planning to leave and our friends are going with him to THRUSH Central. Go outside and find the car they going to use. We'll try to get to them before they leave or this place blows up."**

"**Hurry up, Napoleon, you have about ten minutes. Slate out."**

**Solo and Dancer watched as the guards and Fellows came out of the room and walked back to the lab around the next corner. They couldn't quite see into the room, but could hear voices. **

**Illya and Lexi were both about to the point of passing out from the pain that Davis had inflicted on them, when an alarm rang out.**

"**What the…two of you, go see who tripped off the sensors in the observation room and report back."**

"**Yes, sir." **

**Davis looked at his watch and motioned the last guard to join him by the hanging UNCLE agents as he grabbed two syringes and filled them from a vial of medicine. **

"**It's about time to go. Get Mr. Kuryakin down, handcuff his arms behind him, and hold him in the chair while I inject the drug."**

**Once his hands were released from the handcuffs that hung from the ceiling, Illya barely caught himself from falling to the floor. His arms screamed out in pain from being immobile for so long as they fell to his sides and then were roughly pulled back. That caused another flash of pain from the pounding his sides and back took. **

**Illya tried not to think about how his body was protesting with each spasmodic waves of pain from every movement or breath he took, but instead concentrated on clinching his fists to bring back the blood and circulation back to his numb hands and fingers.**

"**Grab him by the neck and shoulders and hold him still."**

**Davis injected Kuryakin's device's reservoir and then did the same to Lane. Illya kept his eyes focused forward as he tried to control his ragged breathing; playing along. He watched Lexi from the corner of his left eye to see how she was doing. Her head dipped down as she shivered and then grimaced, but remained silent. The overhead alarm stopped suddenly and the room was quiet.**

"**Finally, you'll both listen to me now and not move unless told to. I want you to get up and walk with the guards and me to the car that's waiting in the back of the building."**

**Then the two guards returned to the lab with Dr. Fellows between them.**

"**Sir, we know what set off the alarms. It was Fellows here, he left his room and was standing in the hallway. We brought him with us for the trip to headquarters."**

"**Good, that'll save us some time. Gather them up and take them to the car."**

**Before they could move from their position, the door swung open and the group with Kuryakin and Lane walked through. Solo and Dancer watched them being walked down the hall, handcuffed and looking battered. April had to cover her mouth to prevent giving up their position by the noise she'd made in surprise at their condition. **

**The two guards had a hold of Kuryakin where as Lane was steered to the elevator by a single man who had his arm tightly around her waist with a gun at her side. The third guard was leading Fellows while talking to him and encouraging him to keep pace with the group**

**A noise from the behind them caught their attention. There were two guards coming up the hallway with guns in their hands on their security rounds. Napoleon signaled to April to quickly take care of the guards, because she had the better position as he watched his partner and Lexi go into the elevator and the door shut. The down arrow lit up.**

**Dancer easily took care of the guards with the tranquilizing darts in the matter of seconds, went to retrieve their guns, and turned back to Solo.**

"**Let's go and get that asshole. I still have to find out more information about Lexi if I'm to tease Illya about her. Serves him right for not telling me about her…"**

"**Slow down, we'll get them back for you to do just that. I can't guarantee that you'll ever get Lexi or Illya to tell you anything at all."**

"**I'll take anything I can get."**

"**You're incorrigible, April. Now let's hurry and get downstairs to find out where they're going." Solo pulled the fire alarm as he and the first female UNCLE agent dashed down the stairs by the elevator. **

**Davis and his group exited the elevator when they heard the shrill of the fire alarm going off and the strobe lighting fill the hall. He looked at the guards and they shrugged.**

"**Let get out of here, it's too late for a real fire drill. I hope that people will listen, I have a feeling that this place is about to be blown up by UNCLE."**

**He pushed Lexi to move quicker down the hallway as the guards had to run to keep up with them, practically carrying Kuryakin as they turned a corner.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six**

**Solo and Dancer slowly opened the door to the stairwell and looked around. No one was in the hall. They walked into the hall and looked one direction, then the other. No sign of Kuryakin or Lane as Napoleon held up his tracking device and pointed to the right.**

"**They went this way." He motioned to April and they headed around the next corner. **

"**There, around the next corner!" **

**The red-headed agent started to run towards them, stopped, and took aim at the guards at Kuryakin's side and the one pulling Fellows to the side of the hall before he could use him as a shield from their mercy bullets. **

**Startled by the sudden movement in the corner of his eye, Davis turned to see the third guard go down when the shots rang out sounding like pebbles hitting a tin roof from the UNCLE silencer. He drew out his gun while he continued to push Lane forward and barely turned to returned fire. In one smooth motion, he shot Kuryakin as he tried to detangle himself from the darted guards. Fellows continued to calmly walk down the hall a few feet and then stop.**

**Davis didn't care where he had shot the blond UNCLE man; it was only a distraction to get out alive with Lane.**

"**Damn, you had better be worth all of this, sweetheart, because I have just lost everything else, including your infernal cousin!" He yelled at her as they turned another corner. "You, keep up!"**

**April reached Illya first as he lay on the floor panting in surprise and shock. He was trying to get up so he could go after Davis, but the pain from the gunshot and recent beating made his head swoon and difficult to command the rest of his body to move. The darkness of unconsciousness was almost as blinding as the pain that sang its own song with his fast beating heart.**

"**Illya, you're shot! Stop struggling so I can get those cuffs off."**

"**Only my upper arm; by my shoulder," he said in short, painful pants. "We have to get to Lexi, she's been drugged again."**

"**Only! Slow down!" Napoleon growled as he got to Illya's side and pushed him back down to the ground as he looked at his gunshot wound. "We'll find her; you lay there and try not to bleed too much."**

"**No, Napoleon!" Illya said through clinched teeth, his head started to spin faster while he tried to sit up. "Is it through and through?"**

**Solo lifted his partner up enough to check the back of his arm and shoulder as April handed him a handkerchief to help with the bleeding.**

"**Yes, It didn't hit anything major that I can tell."**

"**Then help me up and don't argue with me. She'll only listen to me. Davis is planning to use her against us."**

"**You're staying with April. She's going to get you out of here. This place is going to blow any minute. I'll get to them quicker knowing that you're taken care of."**

"**But…"**

"**No buts and that's an order. You've got to trust me, partner, as I trust you and Lexi; all of you. I know that I can get her to listen to me, just like you do, no strike that. You never listen to me, but I'll figure out something."**

"**All right," Illya grimaced in pain when Napoleon and April helped him get to his feet. "Lexi improved Augustine's drug and Davis has the remote to give her an overdose if he wants to. I don't know if he used the entire antidote on Fellows."**

"**Antidote?"**

"**Lexi always makes an antidote. Safeguard of sorts. Careful, Napoleon, she's under his control until she sees me. I'm the only one that she will listen to without the antidote. Don't forget."**

"**I won't. Now get out of here!"**

**Solo grabbed the pocketed tracking device and with his gun drawn, he started down the hallway that Davis had taken Lane.**

"**Illya put your arm around my shoulders and let's start walking. We'll grab Fellows and have him help you on your other side. I think I saw an exit sign around the other corner from where the other set of elevators were…"**

"**Napoleon has to bring her back to UNCLE. She would be too dangerous…" Illya repeatedly rant.**

"**I know, Illya, he will. Let's talk about you and her while we wait." **

"**April," Kuryakin said sternly, but slightly smiled as he leaned heavily on her shoulder while they got closer to Fellows who was sitting against the wall, mumbling to himself.**

"**Dr. Fellows, let's go find Julie for you. Can you help me with Illya here? Help me walk him out of the building?"**

"**Julie? Where is she? I need her to tell me what to do. I love her so deeply…"**

"**Yes, Nigel. That's what we are going to do. Go find Julie, stand up, take Illya's arm, and let's go."**

**Kuryakin took Fellows by the arm and balanced himself between them and they all started to walk down the hall, looking for the exit.**

**Several drums banging at the same time rang out like thunder inside the building and it began to rumble and shake when the timed explosives went off in the outer hall corridors. Debris and dust flew all around as the ceiling in the hallway creaked and groaned above Solo's head. Napoleon just had caught a quick glimpse of Davis and Lane at the other end of yet another corridor, when he was forced to slow down by the shaking of the floor and the deafening sound of the rafters finally cracking and fell in.**

"**Damn!" Solo cursed, coming to a stop and seeking shelter in a doorway. Huge chunks of steel and rubble blocked his way. He couldn't tell if Davis and Lane had gotten caught in the explosion or not. The hallway started to fill with smoke and the building began to shake even more violently.**

"**Open channel D, April! Have you two found an exit?"**

"**We were just about to the doors when the bombs went off and Fellows with us. I'll call Mark and get the car. Any luck?"**

"**The ceiling caved in and I'm trapped on one side with Davis and Lexi on the other side. I don't know if they are hurt or still escaping. I'll have to back track from where we came to find them before this place becomes an inferno. Tell everyone to keep watch in case they find their way out."**

"**Napoleon, April is coming in to help you get out and find them."**

"**No, she needs to stay with you, Illya."**

"**I'm fine, you need to get out and find them. Mark and I can handle watching the doors. There is only one set over here on this side of the building. Please."**

"**Fine, I don't like it, but I'll try." Napoleon finally gave in to his friend. "You owe me and I will get my payback."**

"**Don't you always? I promise that if we get Lexi back, she'll take you out to a fancy, high society dinner; her treat. I already know what dress she will wear, you'll love it."**

"**Hey! I want to go too!" April huffed, not wanting to be left out.**

"**Deal, now April, lock on to my signal and we need to meet up. Let's hope that no one is badly hurt, except for Mr. always fine there."**

**April shrugged apologetically to Illya, lifted his arm off her shoulder, and turned back into the building to follow Napoleon's signal from his communicator pen.**

**Davis and Lane were thrown to the floor as the ceiling collapsed behind them. Davis was the first one to recover as he stood up. Stunned, he started to brush the dust from his hands and then picked up his gun from the floor. As he shoved it into his coat pocket, he felt and heard the jingle of a broken objects in his pocket.**

"**This can't be happening." Davis shouted out angrily to the Gods above. "All my plans are gone, because of UNCLE and you!"**

**Davis viciously kicked Lexi hard as he pulled the broken pieces to the remote out of his pocket and let them drop to the floor. He suddenly noticed that one of the pieces had cut him on the side through his coat as he had fallen on it and swore.**

"**Maybe, I can get you to make some more of your formula's antidote when we get to Central if you weren't just made into a vegetable..."**

**Davis pulled out a half-full syringe in another pocket, grabbed Lane's arm to pull her body over to him, found a visible neck vein, and crudely injected the medicine home. The injection site trickled a line of blood down her shoulder as he pulled the needle out.**

"**I hope this works, get up Alexana! Walk with me!" David yelled and jerked her to her feet.**

"**Alexana's dead." Lane mumbled softly as she fell deeper into oblivion, but with Davis' help, started to get up. His swift and hard kick landed just below her left shoulder, making hard for her to move her arm without it feeling like jelly. Being thrown from the explosion had refractured the two ribs that she had broken just a month ago, but she didn't feel it.**

"**She will be if you don't start walking, now!" Davis coughed out, the hallway filled with smoke and flames started to rise from a room down the hall. **

"**Da…"**

"**Speak English!"**

**Mark Slate watched a few THRUSH employees leave the building when the fire alarm ring, but like most workers, they thought it was only a drill. Odd for an alarm like that was going off at two in the morning, he thought and shook his head at their stupidity. All UNCLE agents were to comply one hundred percent with all drills. They were even fined by Waverly if he found out that you refused to leave the building.**

**It wasn't hard to find the car waiting for Davis and his group. It was a van actually, because it was the only vehicle running at this time of night. Slate had easily taken out the driver, stripped him of his uniform and gun, tied him up, and took his spot. He watched with glee as the explosives he had planted went off on the other side of the building. Forcing everyone to leave this side of the building and creating quite a nice fireball.**

"**Open channel D, Mark, are you there?"**

"**Yes, I got the van. Did you find our friends, April? Great explosion..."**

"**Illya and Fellows are out by the double doors. Illya's been shot and I went to go back in to help Napoleon track Davis and Lexi down. We are on the south side of the building. You're to take care of Illya and watch the doors if Lexi and Davis should come out. Napoleon doesn't know if they are trapped in the building or not."**

"**Right, Luv, on my way, white van."**

"**Oh by the way, nice explosion Mark, Dancer out."**

"**Cheers," Slate said put down his communicator and pulled the van into action. "Well Illya, old man, you two shouldn't be hard to find. A bleeding man and a zombie in a doorway…"**

**Illya pulled Fellows down to sit on the floor between the double set of doors at the entrance as he watched April ran back into the building in a low crouch and her mini rebreather in place. Most of the smoke was trapped by the first set of doors, the rest floated up to the three-story high ceiling. They couldn't stay there for very long before they would have to give up their cover, because of the fire brewing.**

**April had given him the guard's gun and he held it in his good hand, waiting to see any signs of movement in or out of the building. Illya's arm burned and his eyes drooped, but he refused to give in.**

**He peered out into the darkness to see headlights come into view, but didn't reveal his position until he saw it was the white van that Mark said he was in from the streetlights. Slowly Illya walked into the center of the alcove to signal Mark, who flashed his lights in response.**

"**I see that you waited for me, Mr. Kuryakin. You even brought Fellows along for the ride, how thoughtful of you." A familiar voice simpered from behind him. **

**Davis had spotted him through the dimly lit glass and gathering smoke and using it to his advantage. "I believe that my luck must be finally changing for the better. I take it that's an UNCLE agent driving that van?"**

**Kuryakin didn't respond to Davis as he felt the barrel of a gun pressed to the back of his head. What worried him was he felt the tiniest trembling travel through the upturned gun from the hands that held it. He turned around and the gun barrel moved with him to stop right in the middle of his forehead, just above his eyes. In expected fear, he was met with sapphire, vacant blue eyes that widened only slightly when they met his.**

**He said a few quick words softly to Lane in their special language, his heart beat racing in his ears. By now, he was getting use to the pain and the bleeding from the gunshot wound which slowed down a bit. Pure adrenalin was the only thing that was keeping the slight agent on his feet.**

"**Don't talk to me. I'm not supposed to listen to you!' Lane growled hoarsely as she tried to still her shaking hands. "I will…kill you! We have to go now…please."**

**Illya handed Davis his gun, not breaking eye contact with Lexi and shifted his eyes slightly to the right and back again. He drummed his fingers on his good hand in a certain pattern as he dropped it to his side. He knew that she would have to remember something from their past training together. Unconsciously, Lane nodded her head the smallest, unnoticeable fraction toward Davis and the trembling got worse.**

"**What I don't understand is why you're not affected by the overdose of the medicine as she is, Mr. Kuryakin. Why is that?"**

"**Like a said before, I'm not telling you anything and be assured that you'll be dead before the night is through. I promised you, remember?"**

"**Charming up to the last I see. Not a problem, Alexana will tell me."**

"**Alexana? What happened to calling her chickadee? Getting a bit too personal and lusting after her now too, Davis?"**

"**I like Alexana better. Reminds me who I'm dealing with when I train her to be more than a lab rat." Davis ignored Kuryakin and touched Lexi's shoulder. "Alexana, tell me why Mr. Kuryakin is not affected by your formula."**

"**Alexana is dead," Kuryakin said softly to his secret love, who remained spellbound by his blue, glacial eyes. "Her name is Janice Smyth."**

**Lexi's hands violently shook as she slowly blinked.**

"**Enough of this! Let's go to the van. Alexana, you take care of the UNCLE agent in the vehicle while I take Mr. Kuryakin to the back and secure him. Having him in any condition will help explain things to THRUSH central. Go! I will wait here for your signal. Now!"**

**Davis raised his gun to Illya, who just slumped against the wall as his energy and strength started to fade as Lexi lowered her gun to her side and quickly walked out of the doors toward Slate who was sitting in the waiting van. **

**Before his back could feel the wall behind him for full support, Davis grabbed him by his wounded arm and spun him around in a head lock to face Solo and Dancer when they emerged out of the smoke filled building and up to the first doors of the entrance. Davis pointed his gun at Illya's head and motioned them to come towards him.**

"**Nice for you to join the party, now, very slowly come out of there with your hands up or I'll kill him!"**

**Napoleon and April very slowly raised their arms up with the guns in them while they opened the first set of doors and pull out their rebreathing devices as the smoke rose up the tall ceiling.**

"**Throw everything on the floor and…."**

**Before Davis could finish his sentence, a gunshot rang out through the glass door and hit Davis in the back. Shock and wonderment colored his face as he began to slump backwards, his gun went off. He had barely missed Illya's head by a fraction of an inch; gun powder burning the side of his face.**

**Both Davis and Kuryakin fell back onto the floor in a pile while Solo and Dancer jumped for their guns. April trained her sites on Davis and kicked his gun away from him. Napoleon grabbed for Illya and pulled him to the side of the entrance.**

"**Ouch! Napoleon, that's my injured arm! Which one of you killed him?"**

**Both of them shrugged their shoulders when they looked at him and then they all looked at the entrance door to see a single bullet hole through the glass door. In the reflection of the glass was Lexi with both hands holding an aimed gun at the doors. Standing still and steady as any assassin would be, by the corner of the railing to the steps.**

**April lowered her gun and tried to walk out the door towards the new Section Two agent, but was met with a single gunshot just inches above her hand on the handle. She yelped out loudly, backed up and raised her gun.**

"**Give me Kuryakin! We must go. I have to take care of any UNCLE agents who get in the way!"**

"**Lexi's gone mad!"**

"**No!" Illya shouted to get April's attention. "She's just drugged. She'll only listen to me right now. Help me up."**

"**I hope you know what you are doing." Napoleon looked at his partner.**

"**I hope so too, because my arm is killing me and I'm hungry. I don't want to pass out before I have a chance to get to Lexi. She'll kill you both as easy to look at you right now."**

**Napoleon and April helped the shaking man up to his feet and waited as he swayed with his first few steps, then straightened his shoulders. Illya opened the door to the outside and slowly walked to Lexi who still had her gun raised and pointed to the entrance.**

**Illya began to talk encouragingly to her as he awkwardly came down the stairs, holding his injured, bleeding arm tightly to his bruised and battered body. He could hear the sirens from the distant fire trucks coming closer. A cool breeze licked the skin of his bare chest, causing him to shiver even more.**

**Just a few feet from Lexi, he stopped. He looked her straight in the eyes and held out his hand for the gun. Illya never flinched or made any sudden move. Slowly, she released her breath, straightened up, and gave him her gun. He threw the gun away and pulled her into a one armed hug while talking to her tenderly. At first, she stiffened and then relaxed in his arms.**

"**Go see to Mark, April." Kuryakin called out to them, letting them know it was all right to come out.**

**April pushed the door open, took a deep breath in and let out, Napoleon put his hand on her back to push her forward and pulled Fellows behind him.**

"**Mark? What about him?" She asked back to Napoleon, not waiting for him to walk down the steps. Just in time to see and hear the inside entrance doors explode outward from the pressure building up from the fire. Everyone hurried out of the range of raining glass as the second set of door were about to buckle. April passed by Illya and Lexi as she ran to the van.**

"**Mark? Are you all right?"**

"…**Yes, I think so. I don't know what happened. Lexi came up to me, smiled at me, raised her gun, and cold cocked me. Knocked me straight out. I've been seeing stars. What did I miss?"**

"**I have a feeling that you missed being killed by this much." Napoleon gestured the length of a few inches with his index finger and thumb.**

"**My head doesn't feel like she missed me at all. What's going on, Guv?"**

"**I'll explain it to you as we get to headquarters. Let's call in backup and get Illya, Lexi, and you to Medical. I'll drive."**

"**Remember, Napoleon, we want to get to headquarters alive. No use in killing us now that we have Fellows and destroyed this place." Kuryakin teasingly commented as he led Lexi to the van.**

"**Get in the van before I leave you here. Besides, you owe me a meal at a fancy restaurant and I intend to collect."**

"**Mark and I want to go too, please Illya?" April pleaded again.**

"**First, you did not find Lexi. She and Davis found me while you two were running around in a burning building, which will get you a stay in medical just like us for at least for the rest of this day. Second, I said that Lexi would pay, so you'll have to ask her when she is able to and I hope that's soon. And third, I'm hungry and if you don't start driving, I'll drive and you take your chances with Lexi and hopes she does not kill you first. She needs to eat too before we both pass out."**

"**Well if you get in, we'll get going." The caviler CEA bowed and waved his scruffy partner to go through the side door. "April, do mind sitting by these two crazy Russians and keep an eye on Fellows?"**

"**Not at all, Napoleon, I can get to know Lexi better..."**

"**Don't count on it." Illya sighed in chronic frustration sat down and pulled Lexi by him to wrap his good arm around her sagging shoulders while she rested her head on his shoulder and curled into a tight ball. April picked up a spare blanket and covered them with it. "I'm not in the mood to play twenty questions."**

"**But, Illya…"**

"**No! April…"**

**Napoleon laughed when he shut the door to the back part of the van and went to sit in the driver's seat next to Mark.**

"**Has April started in on Illya and Lexi?"**

"**Yes," Napoleon sighed, rubbing his dry and irritated eyes while he put the van into gear.**

"**Man, I'm glad that I'm up here with you. I can handle the banter between you and Illya, but don't want to be anywhere near the Ice Prince when April won't let things drop."**

"**Me neither."**

"**What's this about a fancy dinner and Lexi buying? April hasn't told me very much about Lexi. Only that she knows Illya from the past, boyfriend-girlfriend like. I know that I'm a little dazed, but I must be missing something."**

"**So is April and that's why she's pestering Illya right now. Let's get going and I'll fill in some of the details that I know Lexi will let me tell you, but it's strictly a need to know basis for the four of us. Is that clear, Mark?"**

"**Crystal. I work with April remember? Besides, Illya would have my hide."**

**Solo laughed as he began his story on how he knew and met Lexi. **


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven**

"**Mr. Solo!" Dr. Allan sternly called out to him as he entered the exam room.**

"**Yes?" Solo said smoothly while sitting on the table in the middle of the room. Even though he was tired, eyes red and irritated from smoke, and hating this part of being UNCLE's CEA, he was one who had to make the Section Two agents behave and tow the line. "Let me guess, Miss Lane?"**

"**She's been exceedingly difficult. I know that she can't help it, but I've got to examine her and take Mr. Kuryakin to surgery to repair his bullet wound. I can't do it if she attacks everyone who comes near her while she was protecting Mr. Kuryakin. I need to get close enough to sedate her now that she's finally been separated from him, but she is like a caged animal."**

"**Quickly check me out of here and I'll go to her. Maybe she will listen to me." Solo patted his hair down with the palm of his hand as his shoulders tightened in frustration.**

"**Go, you're checked out. I can tell that you are not suffering from smoke inhalation. Your eyes are a little red, but that's all. I'll listen to your lungs in four hours and eight hours to be sure."**

"**Thanks, where is she?"**

"**Room five."**

"**Is Dr. Thompson here yet to check her blood sample?"**

"**It's up to you to help us get him one. That's why you are CEA over this disagreeable lot. Give it a try before we have to use a dart gun on her. I'll have Thompson meet you there."**

"**Do I get a lollipop if I can get the job done?" Napoleon asked sarcastically.**

"**I'll give you the whole bag! Now, go please." Allen barked out.**

"**Lexi…"**

**Solo announced himself, walking into the room to see a trembling, slim woman slowly pacing up and down the room looking for a way out. She didn't acknowledge or recognized him, but look past him to the door which shut quickly behind him and he casually leaned against it. He was silent and didn't try to approach her or talk. **

**Lexi finally stopped and turned towards him after finding no other way out. She stood with an unbending determination, but looked so fragile at the same time. Napoleon didn't know what to do right away. Like Illya, you didn't approach a drugged up Kuryakin, male or female. It was then that he realized how identical they were in education, training, and how they approached solutions.**

"**Comrade Lieutenant Alexana Kuryakin." Solo snapped like a commanding officer.**

"**She's dead." Lane said in a horse whisper, looked away, and then turned back to him.**

"**Who would Illya say you are?"**

"**Janice Smyth…Monica Lane…Christina Roth…Lexi."**

"**What have you been told to do for Illya and THRUSH agent, Davis?"**

"**Read my notes from the forum, kill Professor Augustine, but it was only a dart, make one of my formulas, make a better version of that bastard's formula, an antidote, and overtake any UNCLE agents in the way to get Illya in the van. He's not to be harmed so he could be taken to THRUSH Central."**

"**But Illya was hurt. You need to help him Lexi." Napoleon reasoned with her.**

**Lexi's body jerked as she continued to look blankly at Illya's partner, waiting for him to tell her what to do to help her obsession. **

**Napoleon now suddenly knew for sure that she must have been overdosed with the medication, because she was acting just like Fellows did when Julie Wallace had lead him through the airport and when the guards brought him to Davis in the lab. **

"**Illya needs you to give a sample of your blood to George and make more of that antidote to help him. Can you do that?"**

"**Yes." Lexi said quickly and then eyed him suspiciously. "Only, because Illya told me to…trust you."**

**Solo smiled, took his hands out of his pockets and crossed them over his chest. He pounded on the door with his heel and it opened to let in Dr. George Thompson in with a blood drawing kit.**

"**Lexi, what are you doing…oh my…you look horrible." George stopped dead in his tracks when he saw someone who sort of resembled the person who shared a lab with him standing by the wall. Bruises and scratches accented her pale and skimpily clad upper body as she kept very still, ready to run out the door. "What's wrong with her?"**

"**George, she has been drugged with one her own formulas that she improved for a THRUSH scientist. What did she call them? One of her batch of nasties…"**

"**Boy, oh boy!" George whistled. "Well, we need to start off with a blood sample and I'll give her a generic antidote…"**

"**No, Lexi already has some of the antidote specific for that drug, I think by the bloody needle mark on her neck. She just needs to make more of it in the lab. I don't think that Illya had been affected like she was. We'll just have to help her get out of Medical first. Take some of her blood while I find a shirt for her to wear. It'll keep her warm and decent."**

"**Say, Napoleon, what's that on the side of her head?"**

"**What? Is that where Augustine's device is? Show me."**

**He was surprised that Lexi had let George close enough to see that some type of device was behind her ear, but slapped his hand away as he tried to touch it.**

"**Lexi, does Illya have one as well?"**

**Lane nodded as she brought her arm up and out so her lab partner quickly tied a tourniquet around it to find a reasonable vein.**

"**Controlled by remote to overdose if it's messed with..." Lexi stammered out and swayed.**

"**Don't worry, Lexi, I won't touch it. Dr. Allen can take it out later," George said reassuringly as he finally found a vein big enough to draw out some blood. "There, all done. Man, you're dehydrated. I could barely get enough for a decent sample."**

**Lane waved Thompson out of the way as she tried to leave the room.**

"**Lexi, where are you going…?"**

"**Lab. Antidote. I must go."**

"**I'll take you if you promise me that you'll eat and drink while you make your antidote. You'll be no good to Illya if you don't have any more energy to hold a beaker."**

**Lexi shrugged and nodded yes, but Napoleon wasn't easily put off and stood in front of the door until she stopped and looked him straight in the eyes.**

"**Yes."**

**Illya woke up dazed to where he was. His first thoughts were of Lexi and how she was doing. His face felt raw from the gunpowder burns and his injured upper arm was secured to his side with bandages. Those same bandages supported his cracked ribs as well. The sheer size and amount of dressing used by Dr. Allen was impressive to him and he knew that is was revenge for all the times he wiggled out of them and escaped from Medical. **

**He brought his free arm up to feel for Augustine's device on the side of his head, but the only thing there was a few regular stitches. Illya sighed in relief even as his body ached when he shifted in to a more comfortable position.**

**He looked around to see if any of the medical staff had noticed him stirring. They were usually very prompt and this time wasn't any different.**

"**Mr. Kuryakin." Dr. Allen showed up expectantly. "How are you feeling?"**

"**Better, how is Miss Lane?"**

"**I wouldn't know." The bulldog of a man huffed, trying not to relay the underlying anger from lack of respect from his Section Two patients.**

"**What!"**

"**Mr. Solo got her to let Dr. Thompson to draw her blood after we sent you to surgery, but she wouldn't let anyone in Medical touch her. Then he whisked her away to that lab of Thompson and hers to make some type of antidote for you. She won't do anything without your name attached to it. Hell! She gave Mr. Slate a good concussion, hit two nurses, escaped restraints, and bit me. All to get to you, why is that?"**

"**Well," Illya cleared his throat, trying to hide his grin with a look of concern for the doctor's troubles. "Dr. Allen, it was the effects of the formula that she improved upon while we were in THRUSHES' lab. It makes you follow orders from only one person no matter what or who stands in your way. It sounds as if it's worn off enough for her to make more of the antidote. Dr. Fellows was overdosed and her antidote improved his condition immensely. He needs another dose or so to recover further. So will Miss Lane."**

"**That is not reassuring when I didn't even get a chance to exam her first to know how much damage she did to herself. I should've tranquilized her to begin with, but I didn't know it would affect her blood toxicity. Now, you lay still and let me exam you or I'll sedate you!"**

"**Dr. Allen, its Illya's job to be difficult, not yours.," Napoleon said with a bit of authority catching the end of his tirade. "Lexi will be to see you, Illya, as soon as she is seen by Dr. Allen, after you've finished up here with Illya doctor of course. George Thompson is with her now while they're finishing the antidote. I can tell you that she has numerous bruises, scratches, a repaired gunshot wound, and at least two cracked ribs."**

"**How is she, really?" Illya asked Napoleon as Allen silently continued to look him over while listening to their conversation.**

"**She'll live to spy again and UNCLE is safe for now."**

**Solo and Kuryakin waited patiently as Dr. Allen finished his exam and hesitantly left.**

"**She was overdosed wasn't she?" Illya surmised, grimacing while trying to find the sweet spot in this all too familiar hospital bed while wrapped like a half-mummy.**

"**Yes, I believe she was. April and I found some pieces of a broken device that could have been a remote on the floor on the other side of where the ceiling had caved in. We also found an empty syringe as well. I don't know what was in it. It was all a guess until I saw Lexi in the holding cell. I think that Davis gave her some of the antidote or she would have been far worse. Zombeeish as April would say."**

"**Zombeeish? Yes, I agree with you on that," Illya nodded.**

"**There's one thing that's been puzzling me though," Napoleon said softly, leaning in real close to the supine agent so the monitors couldn't pick up their conversation. "When I asked her who you thought she was, she gave me several names. What's that all about?"**

"**Napoleon, Lexi and I went through many training sessions where we were abused, tortured, and had to hurt and kill others as we grew up while working for her adoptive father and the Soviet Union. To deal with this, we'd play a game that helped us with the pain and mental suffering. We would invent different people and personalities to be and how they would respond; sort of like acting. I think that she relied on this game to get herself through it all more or less mentally intact."**

"**And you," his friend thoughtfully asked.**

"**Although I like to play other people and personalities for UNCLE, I am very much myself. She used her different personalities to help her in her missions as a way to escape discovery, but all and all she is one person, Lexi. The girl I met when we were seven and sent to play in the gymnastics facility while our fathers talked about spying during the war with the Nazis. Father and I were staying with the Gypsies while Lexi's family lived by the University. **

"**She goes as far as making some of them real people, giving them passports and credible histories. That way she has a safe place to work from."**

"**So why is Alexana dead?"**

"**It's her way in saying that she could never be that personality again. The hardened KGB officer who killed when told. She's still part of Lexi, but she won't use that name or identity again if she can help it. She'll even go as far as to limit the use of Russian and her natural accent."**

"**Janice Smyth?"**

"**The scientist who's got the PhD in Chemistry that can see formulas and compounds in her head, whip up a drug and its reversal faster than anyone I know. Truly gifted, just like her mother, but she has no history."**

"**Christina Roth?"**

"**The socialite who has all the money you could ever dream of from her American grandfather. She's generous and uses her Master's in Human Behavior to read people."**

"**Monica Lane?"**

"**That one's a new one. Taken by opportunity, but I believe it will take me and Lexi a while to see where she fits in. Loyal like Alexana was and a true agent, but more playful like Rachel…"**

"**Rachel?"**

"**She didn't mention her?" Illya smiled. "You'll have to find that one out by yourself." **

**Napoleon leaned back and made a foolish face at his friend. **

"**Now you're not being fair to your partner. I think that I'll go and check on Miss Lane. Try to convince her that you are not her entire world..."**

"**Try as you might, but I think that you are wrong. I am her world for now, but it will end soon enough when that drug is out of her system and all of this will be back to normal."**

"**Nothing is normal for you, my Russian friend," he said with a smirk, got up with a big show of straightening his dropping shoulders, and walked out Illya's room with a wave. "I bring her to you as soon as I can. Get some rest and eat something."**

"**Thank you, partner of mine and get some rest yourself."**

**Napoleon smiled to himself while he heard the door shut behind him. Joyful and secured in his mind that his and Illya's partnership was stronger than ever. Without having to say it, except with one single word, partner. That told each other volumes.**

**Illya suddenly felt a cold breeze, his blanket being lifted from him. Keeping his eye closed, he smiled lightly when a hand touched his unbandaged shoulder softly, but insistently pushed on it. Instead of his usual behavior of roughly cursing in Russian, all he did was groan in discomfort while he moved over in the hospital bed. A warm body moved next his good side and he was careful not to tug at his IV line when he wrapped his arm around her. A small jab to the ribs did cause a flash of pain.**

"**Hey! Watch your elbow, Lexi."**

"**Sorry, it's hard to move gracefully. My ribs and arm hurts too…"**

**Alarms went off, the lights flashed on, and agents with guns ran into the room to find Lane lying beside Kuryakin. He only waved them away and shouted out to be heard over the chaos.**

"**She's fine. Miss Lane can stay by me until the drug has worn off!"**

"**But, Mr. Kuryakin, she's to be under constant supervision until she's to have another dose per Dr. Thompson and Mr. Solo's orders."**

"**I'll supervise her. She's no threat to me. You two can watch from the other room. Miss Lane has nowhere else to go from here. Now turn off those damn alarms and kill the lights! We need to rest, Dr. Allen's orders."**

**Dr. George Thompson had silently came into the room behind the agents, put his hands on their shoulders, and nodded that it was okay for them to leave Lexi where she was and go to the monitoring room like Illya wanted**

"**I'd tell you two to get a room, but I see that you already have one." George snickered at the blond man who viciously glared at him.**

"**Get out!"**

"**Don't yell at my partner," Lexi wispily said, softy sighed happily and snuggled in closer to his side. "Thanks, George…"**

"**You're welcome, Lexi. Just don't rip out your IV and monitors before you take off the next time. Lucky for you it was me instead of Napoleon. He's tired, grumpy, and finally sleeping. I'd hate to have to wake him up and tell him that you took off yet again. I'll give you the final dose of the antidote later."**

"**Lexi…" Illya started to complain about how she made her way to his side.**

"**Shh…I'm trying to get some rest."**

**Illya cursed in their special language and she giggled while they settled themselves in the bed to sleep the rest of the day away next each other. Neither one of them were caring who saw them together for the moment while they peacefully slept in the dimly lit hospital bed. **

"**Lexi! What is this?"**

**Lane looked up from her lab notes on the table and over the rims of her granny glasses at the approaching Section Two agents, Napoleon and April, to see what they had in their hands. She and Illya had been on limited duty for the last two weeks while the other three had been away on the same assignment.**

**Illya walked in from the other side of the lab, holding a file as he heard who'd came in with Thompson in tow. Both with thick, black, framed glasses perched on their noses with their work clearly smeared all over their lab coats.**

"**Welcome back. Did you miss me Napoleon?" He smiled darkly at his friend. "I haven't missed you."**

"**It was one of my better missions; I didn't have to deal with your grumpy ass or got hurt. I'm not here to see you anyway." He retorted back with their usually volley of words.**

"**Hey, so this is where you all went," Mark said slightly of breath. He was the last one to walk into the lab with an invitation in his hands. "Lexi! Great to see you again, you're looking better than ever, Luv. You're not going to hit me again are you?"**

"**No." She sighed in mock frustration and dramatically shut her notebook. "Well, I'm not going to get anymore work done right now." **

"**It's time for you to have your snack anyway. Let's all go." George smiled at her as she crossed her arms in defiance to her chosen partner. **

"**Yes, I'm hungry too." Illya added as he removed his own glasses and pocket them in his dirty lab coat and hung it up.**

"**Well, I'm not hungry. I'll weigh two tons if I keep eating this much all the time…"**

**Thompson just smiled as he started to remove her pristine lab coat for her shoulders and hung it up for her. Napoleon had a feeling that not many people would be able to force the new female UNCLE agent into giving up what she was doing that easily without a fight.**

"**It's Dr. Allen's order and you're going to follow it." Illya quietly growled at her in a low menacing voice. **

**Neither one of them broke their intense eye contact as they glared at one another across the table while the rest of those around them watched the show. Lexi blinked and purposely turned to April with a pleasant smile.**

"**What did you want to see me about?"**

"**Oh, it's about this." April held up her invitation in a stun shock as Lexi took her arm and started to walk her out of lab, leaving the men standing there. **

"**All of you got one, including George and his wife, Cassidy. It's to a fancy charity event that my grandfather's corporation holds at the Waldorf-Astoria, if you are not on assignment of course. I've a whole table reserved. Strictly a formal, black-tie event, just as Napoleon ordered. You can wear that dress of yours, the one Illya picked out. The luscious green one that highlights you hair and figure..."**

"**Sounds wonderful, can I bring a date?"**

"**Of course, I have to find one myself."**

"**Aren't you and Illya?" April asked quietly in her ear with note of confusion to what was going on.**

"**A couple? My goodness, no! We've nothing in common." Lexi looked back at the four men following them, winked at April and then turned back to continue their stroll down the hallway. "He's much too bossy for me, but Napoleon could be a possibility?"**

**Solo took the hint and sped up to take Lane's other arm and tried to charm her with his best girl-catching smile. April groan in disgust.**

"**I would be more than happy to escort you to the ball, Rachel."**

"**Rachel?" Lexi repeated, coming to a dead stop in surprise.**

"**Rachel? Did you hit your head, Napoleon? Why would you call her Rachel?" April asked when she recovered from the jerking halt to their forward motion.**

"**April, it's an inside joke, nothing more. Honest!"**

"**I must warn you, Napoleon, before you go out with her. Lexi's made another one of her nasties. I wouldn't temp fate twice if you know what I mean." George chimed in, touching the side of his nose with an index finger. He ignored Lexi's usual icy stare, the same look as Illya's.**

**Napoleon let go of Lexi's arm to argue with April as Mark stood by to watch them. He was shaking his head, while Illya walked by them all humming pleasantly to himself. Then a hand snaked around Illya's elbow and gave him a quick squeeze before letting go. Someone had begun to walk beside him that he hadn't seen for awhile.**

"**Rachel?"**

"**Yes, Napoleon's starting to figure you out and all the games you like to play." Illya murmured while he picked up the pace to the cafeteria.**

"**Who else did you tell him about?"**

"**Well I didn't tell him about Gretchen… yet."**

"**Sehr Gut! Mein Herr," Lexi purred as she took up Illya's challenged in their foot race to be first in line at the counter while trying to maintain a professional demeanor.**


End file.
